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SPEECHES  OF 


EX-GOY.  HORATIO  SEYMOUR  &  HON.  SAMUEL  J.  TILDEN, 


E  670    • 
.S53 
Copy  1 


BEFOEE   THE 


DEMOCRATIC  STATE  CONVENTION 

AT  ALBANY,  MARCH  11,  1868. 


Speeoli  of  Ex-GoTernor  Horatio  Seymour 
before  the  New  Vorlt  State  Deniovratic 
Convention,  at  Albany,  JTXarcb  11. 

Gentlemen  of  the  Convention : 

"We  have  seen  that  under  the  policy  of  our 
fcithers,  wliich  was  adhered  to  for  seventy  years, 
we  became  a  great  and  prosperous  people,  with 
light  burdens  of  taxation,  which  were  fairly  and 
equally  imposed,  with  freedom  from  official  med- 
dling, that  made  us  the  envy  and  admiration  of 
the  world.  It  is  now  our  duty  to  see  what  have 
been  the  results,  in  seven  years,  of  the  "  policy  of 
hate."  The  condition  and  laws  of  the  land  call 
upon  us  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  rulers.  Sad  and 
painful  as  the  duty  may  be,  we  must  boldly  probe 
to  the  bottom  every  ulcer  and  every  wound  upon 
the  body  politic.  The  war  is  ended,  but  peace 
has  not  returned.  AVe  have  won  the  victory,  but 
our  Union  is  not  restored.  Our  land  is  filled  with 
mourning  and  distress,  but  anger,  malice,  and  re- 
venge are  not  softened.  The  noble  strife  of  arms 
has  ceased,  but  the  ignoble  struggle  for  power, 
plunder,  and  place  goes  on.  Congress  has  done 
more  to  de^roy  the  Union,  to  break  down  the 
fabric  of  ourGovernment,  and  to  efface  the  max- 
ims and  principles  of  our  people,  than  was  ever 
aimed  at  by  rebellion.  Its  system  of  tyranny  and 
corruption  has  not  even  the  merit  of,  bemg  well 
defined,  intelligent,  nor  consistent.  It  has  been 
bewildered  for  want  of  intelligence ;  mconsistent 
and  inconstant  for  want  of  principles  ;'cruel  from 
cowardice,  and  brutal  from  its  instincts.  Thes^, 
are  not  charges  made  only  by  politicajupnonents 
— they  are  admitted  by  its  supportl^^mriy  of 
whom  implore  it  to  stop  in  its  mad  career.  The 
records  of  this  body,  and  its  ovra  statute  laws, 
show  its  inconsistent  and  imbecile  policy.  There 
are  laws  which  tell  you  that  when  there  was  an 
armed,  open,  and  at  the  time  successful  rebellion, 
^hese  men  held  that  the  Southern  States  were  not 
and  could  not  be  out  of  the  Union.  They  formally 
called  upon  them  for  their  quota  to  put  do'wn  their 
'own  resistance  to  law.  When  the  Southern  States 
had  laid  do^Ti  their  arms  they  were  told  that  they 
were  not  States  in  the  Union.  So  the  congressional 
theory  is  that  they  did  not  lose  their  State  rights 
by  rebellion,  but  by  submission.  But  these  States 
were  told  if  they  would  abolish  slavery  they 
would  have  their  place  again.  Slavery  was  Abol- 
ished by  their  action,  and  they  made  it  imconsti- 
tutional  in  any  part  of  the  Union.  They  were 
then  told  they  were  no  States  at  all,  but  unlawful 
combinations.  So  it  followed  that  by  abolishing 
■layery  they  half  abolished  themselves.  g. 


THE   NEGRO. 

Then  it  was  held  that  their  society  was  ra- 
duced  to  a  cliaotic  state,  and  Congress"  would  at 
once  send  down  a  military  force  to  organize  free, 
popular,  and  representative  governments  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet.  It  would  seem  that  in- 
genuity could  go  no  further,  but  it  did.  It  is  a 
very  notorious  fact  that  nearly  one-half  of  the 
people  of  the  excluded  States  are  negroes ;  that 
they  are  in  form,  color,  and  character  unlike  the 
whites,  and  that  they  are,  in  their  present  condi- 
tion, an  ignorant  and  degraded  race.  It  is  the 
clear  duty  of  all  men  to  lift  them  up  as 
high  as  we  can  in  intelligence,  virtue  and  re- 
ligion. It  is  no  time  to  stop  and  dispute  about 
etlinological  questions.  We  must  do  the  best  we 
can  -with  them  and  for  them ;  and  I  have  no' 
doubt  such  will  be  the  course  of  the  Southern 
States.  Their  safety,  happiness,  and  prosperity 
demand  it.  When  they  were  about  to  enter 
upon  their  duty,  Congress  again  steps  forward, 
moved  by  a  profound  wisdom,  and  tells  the 
South  there  .must  be  no  more  black  or  white 
men,  no  more  differences  of  color,  and  that  they 
must  solemnly  declare  in  their  new  State  govern- 
ments that  it  shall  be  unlawful  and  a  high  crime 
to  see  or  know  the  fact  tliat  any  man  is  of  Afri- 
can descent.  But  the  people  of  the  South  re- 
plied, how  can  we  do  justice  to  these  people  if 
we  do  not  respect  the  truths  of  their  condition. 
Congress  answers  in  the  spirit  of  the  witty 
Frenchman,  "  if  facts  stand  in  the  way,  so  much 
the  worse  for  facts."  You  must  pass  laws  in 
your  Conventions  abolishing  these  vile  truths. 
You  must  not  know  that  there  are  such  wicked 
things  as  difi"erences  of  race,  color,  and  condi- 
tion, except  you  may,  if  you  please,  know  that  a 
man  is  an  Indian.  Having  abolished  the  black 
man  and  made  him  a  white  man,  by  act  of  legis- 
lation. Congress  hoped  for  rest  in  their  efforts  to 
M'eave  a  rope  of  sand  which  was  to  bind  the  men 
together,  but  the  constitution  of  Alabama  was 
rejected — the  people  would  not  vote  for  it; 
whereupon  Senator  Sherman,  in  full  view  of  the 
fact  that  the  President  was  menaced  with  im- 
peachment if  he  violated  the  Reconstruction 
act,  moved  that  Congress  itseK  violate  this  samo 
measure  by  admitting  Alabama  under  a  consti- 
tution of  its  own  rejection.  The  policy  of  Con- 
gress is  more  cruel  toward  the  blacks  than  tha 
whites.  These  poor  people  who  are  now  on 
trial  to  test  their  capacity  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves, are  thrust  into  positions  demanding  wis- 
dom, learning  and  experience  ^    The  wsut  of 


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.S  S3 


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these  in  their  Conventions  and  official  life  has 
exposed  tliem  to  the  ridicule  of  the  world,  and 
is  a  serious  hindrance  to  their  progress  ;  it  has 
tilled  their  minds  with  false  views  and  hojics  ;  it 
has  turned  them  away  from  the  duties  of  life  , 
it  has  misled  them  as  to  the  need  of  virtue,  intel- 
ligence, and  industry ;  it  is  pushing  them  back 
'into  barbarism  by  making  them  feel  they  can 
hold  power  before  they  have  learned  the  de- 
mands of  social  life  and  liberty.  So  much  for 
this  miserable  muddle  of  reconstruction.  Uow 
can  a  Congress  satisfy  tlie  people  which  cannot 
satisfy  itself ;  that  has  never  been  able  to  keep 
upon  one  course  for  six  months ;  tliat  condemns 
and  shames  itself  by  constant  change,  repeal, 
and  amendments? 

TARIFFS   AND   TAXES. 

Their  action  upon  tarifls  and  business  interests 
has  been  equally  blundering,  inconsistent,  and 
imbecile.  It  keeps  our  merchants  and  manufac- 
turers in  a  condition  of  imcertainty,  and  all 
agree  that  a  pei-petual  Congress  is  a  perpetual 
curse.  Within  the  past  few  years  it  has  made 
nearly  monthly  changes  in  the  tariffs.  It  hin- 
ders labor  and  enterprise  by  heavj'  burdens,  and 
hunts  down  our  merchants  and  manufacturers 
with  an  army  of  official  spies  and  informers; 
and  it  gives  these  the  power  to  ruin  men  of  lim- 
ited means  by  false  charges.  It  puts  our  Gov- 
ernment not  onlj'  in  a  light  that  is  hateful,  but 
what  is  more  dangerous,  it  makes  it  pitiable.  If 
our  young  men  wish  to  engage  in  business  or  to 
seek  homes  in  the  West,  and  they  ask  from  those 
who  have  money  to  lend  the  aid  which  has  here- 
tofore been  given  for  those  pur2)oses,  thej'  are 
told  that  the  Government,  wliich  ought  to  be  pa- 
ternal, will  pay  a  higher  interest  than  the  law 
will  let  the  citizens  give  or  than  they  can  afford 
to  give,  and,  also,  beyond  this,  will  exemjat  them 
from  taxation.  Congress  paralyzes,  in  this  way, 
the  industry  of  the  land.  WhicliQver  way  j'ou 
look  you  see  that  the  party  in  power  is  a  blight 
upon  the  honor,  happiness,  and  industrial  pur- 
siuts  of  our  people.  Our  carr^'ing  trade  upon 
the  ocean  is  destroyed,  our  shipyards  are  iiile, 
our  merchants  are  distressed,  our  manufacturers 
complain  that  taxation  outweighs  the  protection 
of  tarifi',  and  our  farmers  are  indignant  with  un- 

■  equal  and  insulting  exemption  from  the  cost  of 
local.  State,  and  national  Governments.  Upon 
one  point  onl^^  has  it  been  firm  and  unyielding. 
In  order  to  help  a  foul  speculation  it  put  a  tax  of 
500  per  cent,  upon  alcohol,  which,  the  experi- 
ence of  the  world  and  our  own  experience  show, 
cannot  be  collected.  It  retains  it  with  a  perfect 
knowledge  that  it  merely  ministers  to  public  and 
official  corruption.     The  officers  of  the  law  and 

^  the  violators  have,  under  its  provisions,  taken 
more  from  the  people  than  the  interest  of  the 
public  debt  up  to  this  time.  In  this  strength 
they  control  the  action  of  the  Government,  and 
this  great  stream  of  corruption  is  now  the  life- 
blood  of  a  party  held  together  by  the  cohesive 
power  of  pubhc  plunder. 

CONGRESS   AND    MORALS. 

Congress  is  not  only  keeping  the  Government 
disorganized  and  the  ousiness  of  the  country  un- 
hinged and  perplexed,  but  it  is  also  unsettling 
the  morala  of  the  country.  It  proclaims  to  the 
world  the  sanctity  of  'bonds,  obligations,  and 
contracts,  and  at  the  same  time,  under  the  influ- 
ence and  by  the  action  of  its  party  friends,  many' 
of  Uie  States  which  make  up  the  Union  have  de- 


frauded the  public  creditors  by  forcing  them  to 
take  depreciatca  paper  in  return  for  the  coin 
or  its  equivalent,  which  was  given  for  their  bonds. 
Going  still  deeper  in  dishonor  by  its  laws,  the 
debtor  who  may  have  received  coin  or  other  con- 
sideration equally  valuable,  and  who  has  in  sol- 
emn covenant  agreed  to  paj'  in  coin,  is  allowed 
and  encouraged  to  violate  his  faith  and  to  com- 
pel his  creditor  to  take  debased  paper.  Is  it 
strange  that  in  the  face  of  these  things  our  credit 
is  tainted  in  the  markets  of  tlie  world,  and  that 
our  bonds  sell  for  less  than  those  of  the  TuAs  1 
If  the  moralitv  of  the  citizens  of  the  country  is 
undermined,  if  the  faitli  of  the  States  making  up 
the  Union  is  dishonored,  where  is  the  security  of 
the  national  credit  ?  The  late  Republican  State 
Convention  exjiressed  its  horror  of  repudiation. 
AVill  its  members  explain  the  villainy  whicli 
forced  the  crecntors  of  this  great  commercial 
State  to  take  paper  at  one  time  worth  but  fifty 
cents  on  the  dollar  ?  This  was  done  in  the  face 
of  entreaties  from  a  Democratic  Governor  not  to 
dishonor  New  York,  and  in  opposition  to  the 
votes  of  every  Democratic  Senator.  Will  these 
men  explain  the  indecency  of  an  official  in 
another  State  who  insulted  a  foreign  creditor  for 
asking  money  as  good  as  that  he  had  loaned  to 
the  second  State  of  the  Union  ?  Yet  its  Repub- 
lican legislature  refused  to  rebuke  the  indecent 
action  of  this  indecent  official. 

FINANCES. 

Questions  of  finance,  of  debt  and  taxation, 
have  harassed  all  nations  and  perplexed  states- 
men in  all  periods.  We  have  got  to  meet  them 
surrounded  with  new  difficulties  and  dangers. 
We  do  not  yet  know  the  full  sum  of  the  liqui- 
dated  and  unliquidated  claims.  The  montJdy 
statements  show  that  it  is  a  swelling  flood,  whose 
volume  is  not  yet  measured  and  whose  depth  is 
unplumbed.  Our  people  are  unused  to  a  govern- 
ment which  pries  into  every  private  transaction 
to  extort  tribute.  They  are  bewildered  with  the 
train  of  spies,  informers,  and  officials,  always 
brought  into  use  where  taxes  are  taken  from  one 
class  and  paid  to  another.  The  irritation  is  in- 
creased when  the  creditor  enjoys,  beyond  an  am- 
ple and  usurious  interest,  special  privileges  and 
exemptions.  There  is  a  greater  peril.  We  were 
once  divided  into  free  and  slave  States.  The 
antagonism  in  the  end  filled  our  land  with  blood- 
shed andlRnaourning.  As  the  i^ublie  bonds  are 
mainly  held  in  one  corner  of  our  country,  we  are 
now  divided  into  debtor  and  creditor  States. 
What  will  be  the  end  of  this  ?  At  an  early  stage 
of  the  war,  we  warned  the  party  in  power  against 
this  fearful  result  of  their  policy.  We  warned 
them  in  vain.  Nay,  more,  as  if  bent  upon  mak- 
ing ruin  certain,  they  built  up  a  banking  sj'stem 
which  was  to  have  a  monopoly  of  putting  out 
currency,  and  was  to  get  double  usur-y — interest 
from  Government  upon  its  bonds,  and  interest 
from  the  people  upon  the  currency  issued  upon 
those  bonds.  To  render  its  monopoly  comjolete, 
all  other  banks  were  taxed  out  of  existence.  Eut 
madness  and  folly  did  not  stop  here.  These 
banks  were  not  allotted  to  the  difierent 
States,  so  there  should  be  even  geograplii- 
cal  fairness;  but  the  States  which  held  the 
bonds,  which  had  the  most  wealth  and  made 
the  most*  money  out  of  the  war,  were  al- 
lowed to  absorb  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
§300,000,000  to  which  they  were  limited,  while 
the  States  which  most  needed  currency  in  their 


transactions  were  cut  off.  Let  me  give  one  in- 
stance to  show  upon  what  rule  the  spoils  of  vic- 
tory and  the  burdens  of  war  were  distributed. 
The  State  of  Massachusetts  has  of  the  banliing 
privilege  $56,000,000;  Illinois  $9,000,000.  Yet 
IlliTiois  is  the  more  populous  State,  and  to  send 
its  produce  to  market  needs  more  currency  than 
any  State  in  the  Union.  But  when  men  must  be 
had  to  fill  the  ranks  of  our  armies,  then  each 
State  must  give  its  quota.  Now,  we  have  ever 
had  a  plain  rule  to  get  at  the  just  sliare  of  taxes 
and  burdens.  Taxation  and  representation  must 
go  together.  But  a  new  system  was  gotten  up 
for  the  quota.  They  were  based  upon  the  enroll- 
ment of  able-bodied  men.  Under  this  rule  there 
were  endless  questions  as  to  liability  to  be  en- 
rolled and  constructions  of  law.  Orders  and 
counter  orders  and  explanatory  orders  were  put 
forth  by  the  Provost-Marshal  General  until  every 
one  was  bewildered.  But  under  all  this  there 
were  quiet  manipulations  which  made  the  follow- 
ing result:  In  Democratic  districts  in  this  State 
the  men  were  held  to  be  vigorous  and  robust  and 
fit  to  bear  arms.  In  Republican  districts  they 
were  loj-al  but  weakly.  In  Massachusetts  the 
men  as  a  class  were  so  feeble  that  a  congressional 
district  coidd  only  send  2,167.  In  Illinois,  dis- 
tricts had  to  send  4,004,  So  much  for  the  bur- 
dens. How  was  the  spoil  divided  ?  We  find 
that  bank  stock  was  given  to  Massachusetts  at 
the  rate  of  $52  to  each  inhabitant,  and  to  Illinois 
at  the  rate  of  $Q  to  each  I  The  record  will  show 
how  earnestly  in  this  place  and  elsewhere  we  pro- 
tested against  this  madness  and  folly.  Alarmed 
at  this  new  source  of  danger  to  our  country,  as 
it  was  a  period  of  great  distress  at  the  West,  in 
my  message  of  1864,  I  urged  the  legislature  to 
reduce  the  tolls  on  Western  produce  or  to  carrj^ 
it  toll  free,  in  order  to  check  the  hostile  feelings 
growing  up  in  that  section  of  the  country  against 
the  Atlantic  States.  But  I  urged  in  vain.  Our 
canals  were  in  the  hands  of  tliieves  and  robbers, 
who  would  not  let  these  tolls  be  diverted  from 
their  own  pockets.  The  shadow  of  this  sectional 
question  now  falls  upon  us.  It  has  macle  confu- 
sion in  the  Kepublican  ranks  in  Congress.  The 
resolution  to  pay  Government  bonds  in  gold, 
which  was  confidently  brought  forward  at  the 
beginning  of  the  session,  sleeps  in  committee- 
rooms  and  will  never  see  the  light  again.  Men 
of  both  parties  at  the  West  ■will  strug;gle  to  be 
foremost  in  measures  which  will  meet  tlie  feelings 
of  that  section. 

THE    GREENBACK   QUESTION.  ' 

It  has  been  proposed  to  pay  most  of  these 
bonds  in  the  paper  money  called  greenbacks,  and 
it  is  claimed  that  this  will  save  the  people 
$400,000,000,  without  doing  injustice  to  their 
holders,  as  it  is  alleged  it  M"a3  the  contract  they 
should  thus  be  paid.  This  is  denied  by  others, 
and  it  is  clear  that  the  proposal  has  excited 
alarm,  not  only  as  to  the  mode  of  paj-ment,  but 
as  to  a  growing  feeling  in  favor  of  repudiating 
the  whole  debt.  This  springs  out  of  the  stupid 
folly  which  exempted  the  bondiiolders  from  tax- 
ation, which  lowered  the  price  of  tlie  bond,  as  it 
made  from  the  beginning  a  distrust  that  a  meas- 
ure so  odious  would  endanger  their  payment. 
The  next  cause  of  this  feeling  is  the  fact  that  the 
party  in  power,  to  shield  themselves  from  the 
odium  of  crushing  taxation,  give  out  that  this  is 
necesuary  to  pay  our  debts,  wiien,  in  fact,  two- 
thirds  of  the  money  wrung  from  the  people  is 


wasted  in  corruption,  or  lavished  upon  ofRciaJa, 
or  spent  in  upholding  the  enormous  cost  of  oar 
Government  undcy  its  policy  of  keeping  one-third 
of  the  States  out  of  tin;  Union  by  military  force. 
The  whole  odium  of  tliis  taxation  they  throw 
upon  the  debt  and  the  bondholders.  The  last  and. 
perhaps  tlie  greatest  peril  to  the  public  credit  and 
honor,  is  the  fact  whicli  meets  us  at  every  turn, 
and  anno3-s  wherever  met,  that  the  bondholder  is 
paid  in  coin,  wliile  honest  labor  gets  a  debased 
paper  money.  This  state  of  affairs  alarms  everj' 
thoughtful  man.  IIow  are  these  perils  to  be 
averted  ?  We  boldly  and  honestly  met  these 
questions  at  the  last  election  in  this  State,  and 
we  won  a  triumph  that  astonished  the  country 
and  terrified  our  opponents.  We  wUl  meet  them 
in  the  same  spirit  in  our  national  councils,  and 
we  will  sweep  corruption  and  usurpation  out  of 
the  National  Capitol.  We  will  show  that  d  re- 
turn to  economy,  honesty,  and  constitutional  or-. 
der  is  demanded  alike  by  the  interests  of  the 
taxpayer  and  tlie  public  creditors,  by  the  bond- 
holder and  the  laborer.  This  sectional  division 
of  our  country  into  debtor  and  creditor  States 
lias  caused  mucli  anxiety  in  the  minds  of  thought- 
ful men,  lest  it  should  distract  the  counsels  of 
our  party.  While  on  the  one  hand  the  oppres- 
sive legislation  which  burdens  the  West  with 
high  tariffs,  together  with  the  fact  that  the  reve- 
nues drawn  from  all  sections  are  mainly  paid  out 
to  one,  excites  deep  feeling ;  on  the  other  hand, 
the  bonds  bo  unwisely  and  wastefully  issued, 
have  gone  into  the  hands  of  innocent  holders, 
who  to  a  vast  amount  are  compulsory  owners. 
It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  they  are  mostly 
held  by  capitalists.  Large  sums  belonging  to 
children  and  widows,  under  the  order  of  courts 
or  the  action  of  trustees,  have  been  invested  in 
Government  bonds.  The  vast  amounts  held  by  t 
life  and  fire  insurance  companies  and  savings 
banks,  are,  in  fact,  held  in  trust  for  and  are  the 
reliance  of  the  great  body  of  active  business  and 
laboring  men  or  women,  or  of  widows  and  or- 
phans. The  savings  banks  of  this  State,  which 
are  the  depositories  of  the  poor  or  of  persons  of 
limited  means,  hold  about  $60,000,000  of  Gov- 
ernment bonds.  The  whole  amount  held  in  the 
State  of  New  York,  in  the  various  forms  of  trust, 
will  not  fall  below  S'iOO, 000,000.  If  we  look  into 
other  States,  we  shall  see  that  only  a  small  share 
of  these  bonds  are  held  by  men  known  as  capital- 
ists, but  they  belong,  in  fact  if  not  in  form,  to  the 
business,  the  active  and  the  laboring  members  of 
society.  The  destruction  of  these  securities 
would  make  a  widespread  ruin  and  distress, 
which  would  reach  into  every  workshop  and 
every  home,  however  humble.  ^ 

THE   DEMOCRATIC   PARTY   AND     THE     NATIONAL  >.EBT. 

There  is  a  perfect  accord  in  the  Democratic 
ranks  as  to  the  policy  and  the  need  of  honesty 
and  economy,  but  there  is  some  difference  of 
opinion  as  to  the .  construction  of  the  contract 
with  the  public  creditor.  Some  hold  that  it  is 
right,  and  tliat  it  is  due  to  the  taxpaj'ers,  that  we 
should  save  what  we  can  by  paying  principal  of 
debt  in  currency,  but  they  underrate  the  force  of 
their  own  arguments.  It  is  a  mistake  to  sup- 
pose that  the  interests  of  the  bondholder  and  the 
taxpayers  are  antagonistie.  The  fact  is  over- 
looked, that  in  order  to  make  any  saving  by  giv- 
ing the  bondholder  a  debased  or  worthless  paper,  ' 
we  must  bring  upon  ourselves  disaster  and  dis- 
honor, which  will  cost  a  hundred-fold  what  we 


jjan  save.  It  moanfi  that  we  are  to  give  to  tlie 
jaborer  for  iiia  toil  abase  currency;  it  means 
that  the  honor  of  our  country  ^hall  be  stained ; 
it  means  that  our  business  shall  be  kept  in  un- 
certainty and  confusion;  it  means  that  the  labor- 
ing man  sliall  sulfer  by  the  increased  cost  of 
the  comforts  of  life ;  it  means  that  the  taxpayer 
shall  be  burdened  by  a  Government  proved  to  be 
corrupt  and  imbecile  b}'  this  very  depreciation 
of  its  money.  We  cannot  aftbrd  to  speculate 
npon  the  nation's  honor  at  so  fearful  a  cost. 
When  a  dishonored  merchant  or  a  corrupt  gov- 
ernment wishes  to  make  large  profit  in  specula- 
lang  in  their  own  paper,  they  must  dishonor 
themselves  as  much  as  they  can.  There  is  a 
great  gain  in  this  plan,  as  upheld  by  Messrs. 
Butler  and  Stevens ;  they  not  only  proj)Ose  to 
pay  in  depreciated  paper,  but  they  are  doing 
what  they  can  to  dishonor  the  character  and 
•credit  of  the  countrj'.  If  they  carry  out  their 
corrupt  revolutionary  schemes,  they  will  pay  off 
the  debt  with  paper  which  is  not  worth  ten  cents 
on  the  dollar.  There  is  no  Democrat  livii'.g  who 
thinks  (his  can  be  done  with  safety,  or  that  it  is 
for  the  interest  of  the  tax|iaj'er  at  the  J'-ast  or 
West,  livery  Democrat  demands  a  policy  of 
peace,  order,  and  economy,  and  just  so  far  as  he 
gains  that  he  lifts  up  the  national  credit ;  he 
helps  tlie  taxpaj'er  and  does  justice  to  the  bond- 
holder ;  he  makes  our  currency  as  good  as  ster- 
ling coin-  for  that  will  rise  wilh  the  public 
credit,  liie  error  is  in  suj)posing  that  under  a 
Democratic  administration  the  currency  would 
etill  stand  fixed  at  a  discount  of  one-quarter. 
To  sa}'  that,  is  to  say  that  we  are  to  fail  as  our 
opponents  have  failed.  The  nation's  credit  can- 
not be  bought  at  a  profit  unless  the  nation's 
character  is  dishonored.  If  we  come  into  power 
there  will  be  no  discredit  on  our  currency,  no 
speculation  in  paying  our  bonds  in  paper.  I 
thank  God  that  the  faith  which  we  all  hold  as 
one  man,  seeks  to  level  up,  not  to  level  down.  It 
means  that  sterling  coin  shall  ring  again  on  the 
counter  of  the  tradesman  and  glitter  in  the  palm 
of  labor,  and  gladden  the  heart  of  the  wounded 
soldier.  Our  friends  forget  the  force  of  their 
own  argument.  When  they  show  how  the  debt 
will  be  paid  and  taxation  lightened  by  economy 
and  honestj",  they  also  show  our  paper  money 
will  be  made  as  good  as  gold.  The  downward 
course  of  the  men  in  power  admits  of  traffick- 
ing in  the  honor  of  the  country.  They  can 
sink  it  to  that  point  that  the  payments  of  the 
debt  will  be  an  easy  matter,  but  it  will  be  at 
the  cost  of  the  honor,  the  peace  and  welfare  of 
our  land.  While,  therefore,  we  may  differ  as  to 
the  construction  of  the  contract  with  the  pubbc 
creditor,  we  must  not  confound  the  positions  of 
those  who  think  it  right  to  pay  in  paper,  but 
who  battle  to  make  that  paper  as  good  as  gold, 
with  the  position  of  those  wlio  mean  not  only  to 
pay  in  paper,  but  who  are  also  destroying  the 
value  of  that  ])aper.  That  is  repudiation.  We 
are  not  trying  to  give  paper  to  the  bondholders, 
but  gold  and  silver  to  the  people.  Tiiere  is 
nothing  to  fear  from  those  who  think  by  the 
contract  you  should  take  paper,  if  they  take  a 
course  which  will  make  that  paper  as  good  as 
gold.  Tliere  is  ever^-thing  to  fear  from  those 
who  are  driving  on  to  bankruptcy,  and  it  mat- 
ters not  what  their  professions  may  be. 

AN  APPEAL   TO   THE   COUNTET. 

We  appeal  to  the  bondholder  to  join  with  the 


taxpayers  at  the  East  and  West  in  saving  our 
country.  We  hold  no  bonds,  but  in  common  with 
you,  we  want  the  money  wrung  from  us,  not  squan- 
dered in  corrupt,  treasonable  and  revolutionary 
schemes,  but  used  to  pay  our  debts.  Then  you 
will  get  your  dues,  and  we  shall  be  lightened  of 
our  loads.  Help  us  to  put  men  out  of  power  who 
try  to  put  all  the  odium  of  taxation  upon  you, 
while  they  grasp  the  proceeds;  who  endanger 
j'our  claims  by  putting  you  in  the  light  of  a 
favored  class,  not  because  they  give  you  a  better, 
but  the  people  a  worse  currency.  Help  us  to  wipe 
out  as  soon  as  we  can  this  debt  with  its  unpopular 
exemptions,  lest  the  men  who  justify  repudiation 
by  States  separately  shall  also  declare  for  it  by 
their  joint  action  in  Congress.  If  it  is  possible, 
you,  more  than  we,  are  interested  in  putting  an 
end  to  the  mad  career  of  Congress.  We  appeal 
to  those  who  guard  by  policies  of  insurance 
against  the  dangers  of  fire,  which  may  sweep 
away  their  propertj' ;  to  those  who  trj'  by  life  in- 
surance to  make  provision  for  their  families  when 
death  takes  them  away ;  to  those  who  have  put 
their  slender  earnings  into  savings  banks  so  that 
thej'  may  have  some  support  in  sickness  or  mis- 
fortune— to  see  if  they  have  not  a  deep  interest  in 
stopping  our  Government  in  its  career  of  bank- 
ruj)tcy  and  dishonor.  W^e  implore  them  to  bear 
in  mind  that  the  only  security  they  have  for  the 
sacred  purposes  of  their  policies  and  deposits  are 
the  bomls  of  the  Government,  and  those  will  be 
worthless  if  there  is  not  an  administration  put  in 
power  which  will  seek  to  bring  back  peace,  order 
and  economy,  and  honesty,  to  our  countr}'.  We 
appeal  to  the  bondholders  to  help  rescue  our 
country  from  the  hands  of  corrupt  and  wasteful 
men.  Dy  so  doing  they  will  not  only  best  secure 
their  own  interests,  but  will  gain  the  good-will  and 
gratitude  of  the  oppressed  laborers  and  tay-pav'^ra. 

A   WORD    TO   CAPITAU3TS. 

We  are  not  influenced  in  our  views  either  by 
hostility  to  or  regard  for  the  wealthy,  but  with  a 
sole  purpose  to  do  right.  For  that  class  of  men 
called  capitalists  I  have  no  peculiar  respect,  for 
they  liave  shown  but  little  respect  for  themselves. 
They  have  never  risen  up  to  a  sense  of  the  truth 
that  wealth  and  power  carry  with  them  duties  and 
responsibilities.  While  a  British  Peer  of  the 
Realm  goes  to  the  hustings  through  scenes  of  rude- 
ness and  violence  unknown  at  our  elections,  our 
men  of  wealth  in  the  city  of  New  York  feel  they 
have  not  enough  of  character  to  carry  out  the  du- 
ties of  citizenship.  They  labor  under  a  sense  of 
uncertainty  of  position  which  must  be  bolstered 
up  by  a  careful  avoidance  of  tiie  rougher  duties 
of  life.  I  do  not  complain  that  they  are  not  with 
us,  but  that  they  are  nowhere  when  political  duty 
is  to  be  done.  Absorbed  in  their  greed  for  gain 
they  have,  without  one  manly  protest,  seen  the 
shipping  of  their  city,  which  was  the  pride  and 
glory  of  our  nation,  swept  from  the  seas  by  selfish 
and  sectional  legislation.  One  hour  of  the  honest 
pride  of  the  grand  old  commercial  cities  of  Eu- 
rope would  have  saved  us  from  this  humiliation. 
I  can  never  forget  when  a  cruel  and  wicked  wrong 
was  done  to  the  poor  and  laboring  classes  of  their 
fellow-citizens;  to  those  who  swelled  their  in- 
comes by  their  toil,  these  men  looked  on  with 
cold  indifference.  When,  as  Chief  Magistrate  of 
this  State,  I  struggled  to  right  the  wrong,  amidst 
a  storm  of  abuse  and  calumny,  not  one  of  them' 
even  looked  to  see  if  there  was  justice  in  my 
charges ;  nay,  most  of  them,  \\ath  selfish  coward- 


ice,  swelled  the  chorus  of  defagiation.  So  gross 
was  the  outrages  of  wliich  I  complained,  that  even 
their  authors  were  forced,  by  the  proof,  to  let  go 
their  hold  upon  the  throats  of  their  victims.  In 
this  struggle  of  poverty  against  power — for  it  was 
against  the  districts  wliere  the  poorer  classes  lived 
that  this  cruelty  was  levelled — there  was  no  word 
of  sympathy  or  inquiry  from  tlie  capitalists,  who 
should  have  shielded  tlie  laborers.  It  gives  me 
great  pleasure  at  this  point  to  do  justice  to  my 
political  opponents.  At  a  time  when  party  pas- 
sions were  envenomed  and  ])orsonal*  prejudice 
against  myself  were  at  their  lieight,  a  Republican 
Assembly  of  this  State  gave  me  an  unanimous 
vote  of  thanks  for  m}'^  efturts  to  correct  tliesc  er- 
rors when  they  saw  I  was  in  tlio  right  and  tiiat 
tliey  liad  been  in  the  wrong.  It  was  a  noble  act 
of  courtesy  and  justice. 

THE   NATIONAL  DEBT. 

I  deem  it  my  duty  to  speak  frankly  on  the  sub- 
ject of  tlie  deljt.  We  owe  it  to  our  friends  in 
other  States  to  let  them  know  our  position,  so 
that  we  may  not  fall  into  the  fatal  error  of  mak- 
ing sectional  questions  a  part  of  our  national 
platform.  Tiiey  would  with  justice  reproacli  us  if 
we  suffered  them  to  hinder  us  in  our  battle  in  tliis 
great  State,  v.diich  must  be  won  or  our  country  is 
lost.  We  have  issues  enough  with  the  parties  in 
power  upon  whicli  we  think  as  one  man,  to  over- 
whelm it  with  disgrace  and  defeat.  We  must 
not  distract  our  counsels  with  questions,  however 
important  they  may  be,  upon  which  there  is  so 
much  of  doubt,  and  which  cannot  be  settled  in 
many  years  to  come.  We  must  not  tlms  turn 
away  the  public  mind  from  the  dangers  which 
threaten  the  immediate  destruction  of  the  fabric 
^'  of  our  Government  and  the  liberties  of  our  peo- 
ple. Even  now  the  hand  of  iisurpation  is 
stretolied  out  to  rob  us  of  all  our  rights,  and  it 
must  be  struck  down  first  of  all.  Whatever  our 
views  may  be,  the  payment  of  this  debt  will  fall 
upon  the  future.  iJo  what  we  may,  a  generation 
that  will  come  after  us  will  decide  its  modes 
without  regard  to  anything  that  we  may  say. 
The  depressed  industry  of  our  land,  its  sulfering 
labor,  demands  that  the  load  of  taxation  shall  be 
liglitened.  Our  debt  is  not  due  until  fifteen 
years  from  this  time.  How  few  of  those  who 
now  discuss  this  question  will  be  living  then !  If 
in  the  meanwhile  our  country  is  well  governed, 
if  there  is  economy  in  the  conduct  of  its  affairs 
and  tlie  rights  and  liberties  of  our  people  shall 
be  unimpiiired,  our  population  will  be  iacreased 
from  thirty-five  to  fifty  millions,  our  v/ealth  will 
be  more  t'.ian  doubled.  Then  this  debt  will  rest 
more  lightly  upon  greater  numbers  and  greater 
wealth,  than  it  presses  to-day  upon  the  depressed 
industry  and  disheartened  spirit  of  the  people. 
At  our  last  election  in  this  State,  we  won  a  vic- 
tory which  gave  new  hope  to  the  friends  of  con- 
stitutional order  throughout  the  land.  It  gave 
joy  to  the  liearts  of  those  who  seek  an  honest, 
honorable  aduunistration  of  public  afl'airs.  We 
won  that  victoiy  because  we  lifted  our  standard 
high.  There  came  up  to  uphold  our  banner  the 
laborer,  the  taxpayer,  and  the  bondholder,  for 
they  saw'that  we  were  battling  for  economy,  for 
honesty  and  honor  in  the  conduct  of  public  af- 
fairs. They  felt  that  these  were  demanded  by 
our  common  interests;  that  the  weight  of  gov- 
ernment did  not  grow  out  of  the  cost  of  uphold- 
ing the  honor  of  the  country,  but  the  cost  of  sup- 
porting a  dishonest  and  dishonorable  party  in 


power.  We  deeply  regret  that  our  position, 
should  be  censured  in  any  quarter.  But  we  can- 
not lower  our  standard.  We  will  not  betray 
those  who  came  up  to  its  support.  It  is  enough 
that  honor  forbids  this.  Even  if  we  could  stoop 
to  aught  that  is  less  than  honorable,  even  policy 
would  dictate  that  this  great  State  should  be 
held  firm  and  steadfast  in  its  position,  if  we  hope 
to  save  our  country  from  the  dangers  that  men- 
ace it.  While  it  is  due  to  our  party  and  the  pub- 
lic to  speak  plainly  upon  the  financial  questioa 
which  will,  for  many  years  to  come,  perplex  and 
harass  the  creditor  and  the  tax  payer,  I  turn  from 
the  discussion  about  the  mode  of  payment  at  this 
moment  with  a  degree  of  impatience,  "i  feel  aa  I 
should  if  one  with  whom  I  had  a  long  and  vexa- 
tious litigation  upon  the  terms  of  an  agreement 
should,  in  the  dead  of  night,  break  into  my 
house,  rob  my  treasures,  and  attempt  to  fire  my 
home.  If  when  seized  in  the  act  of  «rime,  loaded 
with  plunder,  with  .the  tinder  and  match  upoa 
his  person  which  were  to  kindle  the  flame,  he 
should  coolly  propose  to  stop  and  discuss  the 
questions  under  the  contract,  the  indignant  an- 
swer would  be,  you  are  stealing  four-fold  the 
amount  In  controversy ;  you  are  trying  to  des- 
troy a  hundred-fold  its  sum  in  value  by  incendi- 
ary fire.  I  will  not  jiut  m3'self  upon  your  level  in 
the  civil  courts ;  I  go  against  you  for  burglary  and 
arson ;  I  seize  and  denounce  j'ou  as  a  criminal,  and 
you  shall  suffer  the  penalty  of  violated  law. 
war  OPPOSED  to  congress. 
I  go  against  this  Congress  for  its  crimes,  and 
above  all  for  those  which  it  is  (now  perpetrating 
against  the  liberties  of  the  people  and  the  sanc- 
tity of  the  Judiciary.  While  we  sit  here  they 
drag  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  our  country,  wiio 
has  been  stripped  of  rightful  power  and  shackled 
with  humiliating  restraints,  before  a  tribunal 
which  decreed  his  sentence  before  the  charges 
against  him  were  framed.  And  what  are  these 
charges?  He  dared,  against  brutal  and  indecent 
statutory  insults,  to  appeal  to  judicial  tribunal. 
He  dared  to  do  his  duty  and  v.'arn  the  people 
against  the  follies  and  crimes  of  their  legislators. 
This  Congress  has  declared  that  to  test  its  acta 
in  the  courts  established  for  that  purpose  is  a 
crime,  and  that  freedom  of  speech  is  a  liigh  ml* 
demeanor  1  When  the  President  entered  upon 
his  duties,  he  took  a  solemn  oatli  that  "to  the 
best  of  his  ability  he  would  preserve,  protect, 
and  defend  'the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States."  For  trying  to  do  this  according  to  his 
conscience  he  is  imjjeached.  If  tliis  higli  officer 
may  not  appeal  to  the  courts,  if  he  may  not  at 
all  times,  by  speech  or  writing,  warn  the  people 
of  the  dangers  which  menace  their  rights  and 
liberties,  what  protection  is  there  for  the  hum- 
ble citizen  ■?  We  are  not  left  to  inference.  Men 
iiave  bean  arrested  without  warrant,  have  lan- 
guished or  died  in  prisons,  without  trial,  and  in 
many  instances  have  never  known  what  oft'encea 
were  imputed  to  them.  The  bill  is  already 
framed  to  take  away  from  citizens  the  appeal  to 
the  courts  in  cases  touching  their  dearest  rights. 
In  ten  States,  military  power  tramples  tiie  judi- 
cial under  foot.  These  men  mistake  t'ae  spirit  of 
the  people.  We  defied  them  wlien  tliey  were 
backed  bj'  a  million  of  armed  men.  We  despise 
them  now  as  they  tremble  on  the  brink  of  dis- 
grace and  defeat.  During  the  past  two  years 
they  have  been  active  in  degradirg  the  Executive 
and  disgracing  themselves.     Tney  may  arraign 


6 


Mr.  Johnson  for  brin^jin!^  Ihcm  into  dislionor 
and  public  contempt,  but  their  own  conduct,  not 
his  speeches,  brought  this  siiame  upon  them. 

ANDREW    JOnNSOX. 

I  have  no  political  prejudices  in  favor  of  Mr. 
Johnson.  I  have  never  seen  him.  He  is  not 
one  I  helped  to  place  in  ofKce,  nor  have  I  ever 
advised  him  or  been  consulted  by  hira  as  to  his 
policy.  I  know  he  has  been  cheated  and  be- 
trayed by  those  about  hira,  who  plotted 
his  destruction  from  tlie  outset.  But  while 
he  has  been  most  luihappy  in  his  friends, 
no  maa  has  been  so  fortunate  in  his  enemies. 
They  have  g^iven  him  a  hig-h  place  in  history  as 
one  who  sufi'ered  for  the  rights  of  the  American 
people.  And  when  he  shall  go  to  his  final  ac- 
count and  his  friends  seek  in  clear,  terse,  and 
lasting  terms  to  tell  that  he  was  a  man  who 
loved  his  co.^itry  and  was  hated  by  the  corrupt 
and  treasonable,  they  have,  to  chisel  upon  his 
tombstone  that  he  was  imijeached  by  this  House 
of  Representatives  and  condemned  by  tliis  Senate. 

IlirEACUMENT. 

But  Congress  seems  te  have  aimed  at  a  dra- 
matic effect,  and  seeks  to  excite  an  interest  iu 
this  "  taking  off"  like  that  which  attaches  to  the 
assassination  of  crowned  heads  in  darker  ages. 
A  stranger  entering  the  halls  of  the  Capitol,  and 
who  learned  there  that  one  was  to  be  deposed 
because  he  stood  in  the  way  of  unlawful  ambi- 
tion or  corrupt  schemes,  as  he  looked  over  the 
assemblage  and  listened  to  the  debates,  would 
readily  pick  out  those  who  were  to  do  the  dark 
deed.  The  face  of  one  would  tell  his  character  ; 
muttering  about  judicial  murder  would  suggest 
another.  A  third  would  be  an  old  man  tottering 
apon  the  crumbling  edge  of  the  grave,  whose 
counsels  should  be  those  of  peace  and  charity, 
but  who  shocks  the  world  by  that  saddest  of  all 
sights — wdtliered  age  given  over  to  evil  pas- 
sions, and  in  its  last  days  muttering  profane 
curses  and  showing  imbecile  malice  as  it  sinks 
into  the  grave.  In  view  of  the  foul  ends  aimed 
at  by  the  body  that  one  day  is  agitated  by  dis- 
cordant passions,  b}'  mutual  reproaches  and 
taunts  of  crime,  and  tiie  next  is  whipped  into  ac- 
cord by  guilty  fears — these  are  fit  instruments. 
Who  more  eager  than  they  to  gain  a  decree  that 
it  is  a  crime  to  appeal  to  the  judiciary  they  hate 
and  fear?  AVho  so  deeplj' concerned  for  a  de- 
cision that  freedom  of  speech  is  a  high  misde- 
meanor as  they  who  are  daily  galled  and 
etnng  and  tortured  b}'  the  uttered  scorn  of  a 
people  ?  We  agree  with  tlicm  that  open  discus- 
sion tends  to  bring  this  Congress  into  public  eon- 
tempt.  When  tlie  sentence  is  prejudged  the 
trial  will  be  speedy.  No  one  thinks  tlie  solemn 
mockery  means  a  fair  and  honest  trial.  Tiiere 
was  a  shudder  when  certain  Senators  solemnly 
swore  to  judge  impartially.  These  very  forms 
of  procedure,  which  were  meant  to  secui-e  a  fair 
trial,  are  hideous  when  used  as  marks  to  hide 
the  malice  and  hate  that  is  impotent  to  speak  the 
verdict  which  must  not  in  form  go  before  the 
trial.  They  shock  us  as  do  palls  and  shrouds 
and  grave-clothes,  which  wrap  up  the  body  of 
dead  and  decaj'ing  justice,  while  the  grave-dig- 
gers of  tiie  House  wait  to  do  their  office  of  put- 
ting away  the  murdered  victim.  Tliis  Congress 
has  by  its  action  oijened  wide  the  door  for  the 
entrance  of  many  disorganizing  schemes;  it  has 
given  to  the  future   many  dangerous  precedents, 


but  none  so  dangerous  as  this,  none  so  deadly  in 
its  tendencies. 

ANOTHER    rMPEACmiENT. 

But  there  is  anotlier  impeachment  to  be  tried 
before  a  more  august  tribunal  than  the  Senate. 
We  arraign  tliis  Congress  before  the  people  of 
these  United  States  for  its  crimes  against  lib- 
erty ;  against  the  Union ;  against  the  rights  of 
our  citizens.  We  impeach  them  in  words  of  our 
Fathers  against  tlie  British  Crown  in  tlie  declara- 
tion of  independence — because  it  "has  rendered 
tlie  military  independent  of  and  superior  to  the 
civil  power" — because  it  "has  erected  a  multi- 
tude of  new  offices  and  sent  swarms  of  officers  to 
harass  our  people  and  eat  out  their  substance." 
We  impeach  it  "  for  depriving  us  in  manj- cases 
of  the  benefits  of  trial  by  jury,"  "  for  taking 
away  our  charters,  abolishing  our  most  valuable 
laws,  and  altering  fundamentally  tlie  powers  of 
our  Government;  "  "for  suspending  legislatures 
and  doclaiing  themselves  invested  witli  power  to 
legislate  in  all  cases  whatsoever."  Beyond  the 
crimes  charged  by  our  Fathers  against  the  Brit- 
ish crown,  we  also  impeach  Congress  for  its  gross 
and  continued  violation  of  the  solemn  declara- 
tion made  to  the  American  people  and  to  the 
world,  that  they  waged  war  upon  the  South  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  restoring  our  Union,  which 
Union  they  now  keep  sundered  for  selfish,  party, 
and  corrupt  purposes.  We  also  impeach  them 
as  enemies  to  the  liberties  of  the  American  peo- 
ple, when  they  seek  to  take  away  the  protection 
of  the  judiciary  and  rob  us  of  the  freedom  of 
speech.  There  can  be  no  freedom  in  that  country 
where  courts  of  law  are  closed  against  the  citizen 
who  seeks  protection  from  unconstitutional  stat- 
utes. There  is  no  help  against  tyranny,  outrage, 
or  corruption,  if  there  is  no  appeal  to  the  inde- 
pendent judiciary,  "  There  is  no  liberty  in  a 
land  if  the  power  of  the  judiciary  be  not  sepa- 
rated from  the  legislative  and  executive  depart- 
ments." What,  tlien,  is  t!ie  condition  of  our 
country  when  in  one-third  of  our  States  the  judi- 
ciary is  under  the  feet  of  the  military — that  mil- 
itary which  our  fathers  told  us  must  ever  be  kept 
in  subordination  to  civil  authoritj'.  In  the  grand 
old  republic  of  Home,  the  genei-al  who  command- 
ed armies  was  not  admitted  witliin  the  walls  of 
the  capitol.  A  Roman  Senate  would  not  let  the 
shadow  of  military  power  fall  upon  the  pave- 
ments of  their  city,  but  an  American  Senate 
with  guilty  cowardice  clings  to  the  skirts  of  a 
victorious  general.  We  warn  those  who  have 
gained  the  gratitude  of  the  American  people 
upon  the  battle-field  against  soiling  tlieir  fame 
by  becoming  the  tools  of  bad  and  artful  men. 
There  was  no  braver  spirit  in  the  struggle  of  the 
revolution  than  that  of  him  who  won  victories  by 
his  courage,  whose  blood  sprinkled  the  field  of 
battle,  and  t-ho  at  one  time  was  the  idol  of  a 
people  who  now  hold  his  memory  in  scorn,  for 
he  proved  a  traitor  to  liberty, 

■WHAT   MUST    r.E   D0>'E. 

But  we  must  not  be  content  with  merely  win- 
ning a  political  victory.  We  must  do  more.  We 
must  fire  the  hearts  of  our  people  with  tliat  love 
of  liberty  and  fill  their  mind  with  a  reverence  for 
the  judiciary  which  animated  our  Fathers,  when 
they  engraved  upon  the  corner-stones  of  State 
and  National  Governmeuts,  that  the  military 
should  ever  be  kept  in  subordination  to  civil  au- 
thority.    It  may  be  asked  vvhat  motives  have  this 


Congresg  to  resort  to  acts  of  violence  unknown 
herelofore  ?  The  vast  increase  of  patronage  has 
much  to  do  with  it,  but  neither  love  of  power  nor 
greed  for  gain  would  make  them  adopt  desperate 
measures  to  hold  place  against  tlie  will  of  the  peo- 
ple ;  the  motive  for  this  conduct  is  fear — the  ter- 
ror of  the  exposures  which  must  be  made  when 
the  books  are  overlooked  and  the  records  laid 
bare.  Nothing  is  so  rash  as  fear.  This  is  the  se- 
cret of  their  forcible,  desperate  hold  upon  the 
War  Department.  Tliere  was  terror  in  many 
bosoms  until  the  Secretary  had  fortified  himself 
Avith  armed  men  at  his  doors.  "What  but  fear  held 
in  one  leash  him  from  Ohio  with  him  of  Jlassa- 
chusetts,  while  tliey  hunted  do\\Ti  the  President? 
no  man  who  looks  upon  them  as  accusers  thinks 
of  aught  else  than  the  foul  reproaches  they  have 
howled  against  each  other  of  crimes  base  and  hor- 
rible, before  which  all  that  is  charged  against  him 
Ihey  persecute  is  light  and  trivial.  Was  it  decent 
to  couple  them  together  ?  No  one  can  have  failed 
to  notice  that  whenever  any  unusual  act  of  despe- 
ration was  to  be  done  in  Congress,  those  members 
resting  under  imputations  of  outrage  or  corrup- 
tions were  active  upon  the  floor.  At  once  were 
heard  the  voice  of  generals  stupid  on  the  battle- 
field and  brutal  in  civil  stations,  men  haunted 
with  guilty  fears  which  could  not  be  quieted  down. 
The  struggle  is  to  hold  power  until  time  shall 
wipe  out  the  records  of  their  guilt,  or  sweep  away 
tlie  witnesses  of  thair  crimes.  What  should  be 
the  attitude  and  action  of  the  Democratic  party 
at  tliis  time  ?  No  ground  must  be  taken  without 
consultation  nor  without  perfect  accord.  We  are 
not  battling  to  promote  personal  views,  but  to  up- 
hold the  wisdom  of  our  fathers  and  to  bring  back 
the  rule  of  the  Constitution.  Our  march  must  be 
like  that  of  the  Macedonian  Phalanx  with  locked 
shields  and  measured  tread.  No  man  must  break 
from  the  ranks  to  push  forward  from  vanity  or  to 
drop  behind  from  fear. 

When  we  have  gained  our  victory  by  boldness 
and  courage,  we  nuist  use  it  with  patient  forbear- 
ance, avoiding  as  far  as  we  can  violent  changes, 
and  seeking  to  give  the  people  rest  from  the  im- 
certainties  and  imbecility  which  have  harassed 
them    during  the   past  five   years.    "We  must 


lighten  ta.xation  by  restoring  our  Union,  thus  &t 
once  cutting  down  our  expenses  and  putting  the 
South  into  a  condition  to  aid  in  bearing  our  bur- 
dens. It  is  one  of  the  perplexities  of  bad  laws 
that  under  them  many  innocent  interests  grow 
up  which  embarrass  the  legislator  in  his  eiforts 
to  undo  the  work  of  unwise  men.  In  such  cases, 
there  must  be  patient  forbearance  until  wrongs 
can  be  righted  and  can  be  cured  without  doing 
injustice  to  any.  Our  Saviour  teaches  us  that 
when  evil  spirits  sow  tares  among  the  wheat,  for 
a  time  the  evil  and  the  good  must  grow  together. 
"  Constitutional  liberty,"  in  the  glowing  words 
of  Justice  Story,  "  must  perish,  if  there  be  not 
that  vital  spirit  in  the  people  which  alone  can 
nourish,  sustain,  and  direct  all  its  movements.  It 
is  in  vain  that  statesmen  shall  form  plans  of  gov- 
ernment, in  which  the  beauty  and  harmony  of  a 
republic  shall  be  built  upon  solid  substructure 
and  adorned  by  every  useful  ornament,  if  the 
itdiabitants  sufler  the  silent  power  of  time  to  di- 
lapidate its  walls  or  crumble  its  many  supporters 
into  dust.  If  the  assaults  from  without  are 
never  resisted,  and  the  rottenness  and  mining  from 
within  are  never  guarded  against,  who  can  pre- 
serve the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  people  wlien 
they  shall  be  abandoned  by  themselves  ?  Who 
shall  keep  watch  in  the  tem])le,  M'hcn  the  watch- 
men sleep  at  their  posts?  Who  should  call  upon 
the  people  to  redeem  their  possessions  and  revive 
the  republic,  when  their  own  hands  have  delib- 
erately and  corruptly  surrendered  them  to  the 
oppressor,  and  have  built  the  prisons  or  dug  the 
graves  of  their  own  friends?"  Let  us,  then,  ap- 
peal to  the  virtue  of  our  people.  I  believe  tliat 
now  they  ponder  by  their  firesides  upon  that 
time  when  under  Democratic  rule  we  had  honest 
officials,  economy  in  afiairs,  and  a  currency  of 
sterhng  coin.  I  believe  their  hearts  are  stirred 
with  indignation  at  the  outrages  now  perpetrated 
at  Washington.  Let  us,  then,  write  in  letters  of 
gold  the  words  honor,  honestj^,  and  economy 
upon  one  side  of  the  folds  of  our  flags,  and  upon 
the  other  freedom  of  speech  and  an  independent 
judiciary.  Then  lift  our  standard  high  and 
march  on.  The  path  of  honor  is  the  path  to 
victory. 


SPEECH 

OF  TUE 

Hon.    SAMUEL    J.    TILDEI!^, 


DEMOOEATIO  STATE    CON^T^NTIOX  OF  NEW  YOEK, 

HELD  AT  ALB.iIfY,  M-illCH  11,  18G8. 


Gentlemen  of  the  Convention  :  On  the  forma- 
idon  of  the  Government  of  the  Unit?d  States, 
tlie  question  still  remained  to  be  solved  what 
practical  character  should  be  impressed  upon  it 
in  its  actual  administration.  Gouverneur  ]\Ior- 
ris,  who  had  fav(/red  a  centralized  system  tend- 
ing to  aristocracy  and  n  onarchy,  when  asked 
his  opinion  of  the  Constitution,  answered,  "That 
depends  on  how  it  is  construed." 

ERA    OF   ORGAXIC    DISCrSSIONS. 

During  the  controversies  of  its  earlier  years, 
men's  minds  were  constantly  turned  towards  or- 


ganic questions.  Every  mensure  was  tested  by 
its  relations  to  such  questions.  Parties  imj)uted 
to  each  other  designs  to  change  the  character  of 
the  Government.  Jefferson  in  the  nation  and 
George  Clinton  in  this  state  led  the  dcmocTatic 
masses  against  a  centralism  which  they  feared 
would  in  practice  assimilate  our  new  institutions 
to  tlie  British  system,  from  which  the  revolution 
had  emancipated  us;  and  it  is  now  historically 
cei  tain  that  a  powerful  element  in  tiie  Federal 
party  of  that  day  did  in  fact  desire  such  a  result. 
Hamilton  believed  Burr,  even  while  the  latter 


stood  high  in  public  esteem,  to  be  capable  of  a 
Roman  or  French  ambition  ;  and  did  not  deem  his 
success  in  establishing  a  dictatorship  or  an  em- 
pire impossible,  if  he  could  gain  the  presidency 
and  wield  its  powers  for  that  object.  Other  emi- 
nent public  men  entertained  the  same  fears  of 
Hamilton,  in  the  event  of  a  civil  convu'sion, 
which  Hamilton  expected.  AVith  such  ideas  in 
men's  minds,  the  political  contest  of  1800  was 
fought,  and  decided  in  the  City  of  New  York 
for  the  State  and  for  the  Union. 

ERA   OF   ADSDNISTRATIVE   DISCUSSIOMS. 

The  result  closed  the  first  era  ot  onr  govern- 
mental history.  The  liberal  and  bencticent  poli- 
tical philosophy  of  Jefferson  became  ascendant 
everywhere  in  the  public  councils  and  in  the  pop- 
ular opinion.  The  essential  character  of  the 
Government  became  fixed  ;  and  men's  ideas  in 
respect  to  it  settled.  Organic  questions — debates 
as  to  the  structure  of  the  Government  ceased  to 
occupy  public  attention.  For  sixty  years,  our 
controversies  turned  on  questions  of  administra- 
tive policy.  Eddies  in  the  current  of  our  jiro- 
gress,  there  were.  The  war  of  1812,  even  under 
Madison,  caused  a  centralization  in  administra- 
tive measures  and  policies  which  cost  us  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  of  peace  to  remove.  But,  on 
the  whole,  the  master  wisdom  of  governing  little, 
and  leaving  as  much  as  possible  to  localities  and 
to  individuals  prevailed;  and  we  progressively 
limited  the  sphere  of  governmental  action,  and 
enlarged  the  domain  of  individual  conscience 
and  judgment.  These  sixty  years  were  a  period 
of  transcendent  national  growth  and  prosperity, 
and  of  universal  happiness  among  the  people. 

CIVIL  -WAR? 

How  and  why  we  passed  from  that  fortunate 
condition  into  a  gigantic  civil  war ;  the  moral  and 
social  causes  which  graduall}-  prepared  such  a  re- 
sult; the  events  of  that  conflict,  1  cannot  pause  to 
jdiscuss.  \Vhen  at  last  we  brought  the  contest  to 
a  successful  issue,  and  especially  when  the  volun- 
tary extinction  of  slavery  declared, — what  moral 
and  material  causes  had  already  made  certain, — 
that  our  northern  systems  of  society  and  indus- 
try are  to  prevail  in  every  part  of  this  continent 
which  shall  be  occupied  by  us,  I  hoped  that  we 
might  speedily  restore  the  people  of  the  revolted 
States  to  their  true  relations  to  the  Union  ;  and 
then  that  we  might  at  once  begin  to  deal  with 
the  administrative  questions  which  the  war  had 
cast  upon  us. 

ADMI>JISTRATIVE   REFORM    REQUIRED. 

Questions  of  this  sort  there  were  enough  for 
a  generation  of  the  most  earnest  political  activ- 
ity. The  reaction  against  the  heresy  of  seces- 
Bion — the  public  necessities  during  agreat  war — 
the  lead  throughout  all  that  struggle  of  a  party 
always  imbued  with  false  ideas  of  government, 
and  with  obsolete  notions  of  political  economy, 
and  always  dominated  over  by  class  interests, — 
had  created  for  the  time  an  overwhelming  ten- 
dency to  centralism.  All  our  administrative  sys- 
tems had  become  buried  under  a  fungus-growth 
which  was  smothering  all  trade  and  sucking  out 
the  vitality  of  all  the  industries  of  the  country. 

PAaKICATION   NECESSARY   FIRST. 

I  looked  to  the  Democratic  party  as  the  only 
agency  through  which  the  government  could  be 
brought  back  to  the  liberal  ideas  and  beneficent 

folicies  which  had  prevailed  under  Jefferson  and 
ackson ;  but  before  we  could  enter  on  the  work 


of  administrative  and  economical  reform,  pacifi- 
catioa  was  necessary. 

RESTORATION  BY    THE    REPUBLICAN    PARTY  WAS    EAST. 

A  complete  and  harmonious  restoration  of  the 
revolted  States  would  have  been  effected  if  the 
Republican  party  had  not  proved  to  be  totally  in- 
capable of  acting  in  the  case  with  any  large,  wise, 
or  firm  statesmanship. 

A  magnanimous  policy  would  not  only  have 
completed  the  pacification  of  the  country,  but 
would  have  effected  a  reconciliation  between  the 
Republican  party  and  the  white  race  in  the  South. 
Every  circumstance  favored  such  a  result.  The 
Republican  party  possessed  all  the  jiowersof  the 
government,  and  held  sway  over  every  motive  of 
gratitude,  fear  or  interest.  The  Southern  people 
had  become  thoroughly  weary  of  the  contest; 
more  than  half  of  them  had  been  originally  oj> 
posed  to  entering  into  it,  and  had  done  so  only 
when  nothing  was  left  to  them  but  to  choose  on 
which  side  they  would  fight.  Few  would  ever 
have  favored  the  measures  which  led  to  the  con- 
flict of  arms,  if  they  had  anticipated  such  a  con- 
flict; many  had  all  the  while  felt  a  lingering  re- 4 
grct  in  ceasing  to  belong  to  agreat  country  which 
they  had  been  accustomed  to  regard  with  proud 
ambition ;  and  all  remembered  that  they  had 
been  prosperous,  contented  and  happy  as  Ameri- 
can citizens.  The  mass  yearned  to  come  back 
to  what  was  left  of  their  birthright.  On  the  sur- 
render of  General  Lee,  every  hostile  sword  fell, 
and  the  abolition  of  slavery  was  yielded  as  a 
peace  offering  with  universal  alacrity. 

All  that  was  necessary  to  heal  the  bleeding 
wounds  of  the  country,  and  to  allow  its  languish- 
ing industries  to  revive,  was  that  the  Republican 
party, — which  boasts  its  great  moral  ideas,  and 
its  philanthropy, — should  rise  to  the  moral  eleva- 
tion of  an  ordinary  pugilist,  and  cease  to  strike 
its  adversary  after  he  was  down. 

THE   REPUBLICAN    PARTY    ON    TRIAL. 

This  crisis  was  the  trial  of  the  Republicaa 
p  .rty.  The  question  was,  whether  it  could  be- 
come a  permanent  party  in  the  country,  contin- 
uing to  govern  for  the  present,  capable  of  be- 
in  r,  from  time  to  time,  c:illed  to  govern;  or 
whether  it  must  confess  itself  to  be  but  a  revo- 
lutionary faction,  accepted  by  the  people  during 
war — accei)ted  for  the  venom  if  not  the  vigor 
with  whichit  could  strike- —acting  often  "outside 
the  Constitution" — often  converting  the  regular 
and  lawful  organs  of  the  government  into  a 
French  committee  of  public  safety  or  a  Jacobin 
club — and  now,  incapable  of  adapting  itself  to  the 
work  of  pacification,  when  that  has  become  the 
commanding  public  necessity ;  and,  therefore,  its 
miss'.ou  being  fulfilled,  having  nothing  left  to  it 
but  to  die  and  be  forever  dismissed  from  our 
national  history. 

FAILURE   OF    REPUBLICAN    rAR;jY. 

In  this  trial  the  Republican  party  completely 
failed.  It  could  do  nothing  but  strike,  when  to> 
strike  was  no  longer  necessary,  or  wise,  or  hu- 
mane, or  Christian ;  and  when  to  contiime  to 
strike  was  ruin  to  all  the  reviving  commerce  and 
reviving  industries  of  the  victorious  North,  and 
inflicted  anew  upon  an  exhausted  people  the 
burdens  of  war,  after  war  was  ended. 

It  could  have  won  into  alliance  with  it  the  ma- 
joritj'  of  the  white  race  of  the  South ;  and  thus 
have  acquired  the  means  of  carrying  on  govern-- 
ment  there,  on  the  principle  and  through  the 


methods  of  our  American  system  of  government.  I  by  these  means  to  sccnre  itself  a2:ain8t  a  reac- 
It  is  the  peculiar    and    crowning  glory  of  that    "        -      •   ■         ■■  .-^^ 

system,  that  it  is  so  full  of  mutual  dependencies, 
between  the  State  and  Federal  machineries  and 
the  different  parts  of  each,  and  involves  so  much 
of  the  voluntary  action  of  the  people  in  every 
locality,  that  two-thirds  of  the  States  cannot  gov- 
ern one-third,  witliout  a  large  co-operation  from 
the  people  of  that  third.  The  necessity  of  this 
co-operation  limits  the  oppression  which  can  be 
exercised  against  a  local  minority.  The  seeking 
of  that  co-operation  informs  the  majority,  and 
brings  it  into  relations  with  the  minority.  In 
trying  to  acquire  the  means  to  govern,  the  ma- 
jority become  qualified  to  govern.  Our  American 
system  of  government  was  not  invented.  It 
grew.  It  is  wiser  and  bett  r  than  anything 
which  was  ever  invented.  It  grew  up  among 
a  people  whose  government  was  everywhere  car- 
ried on  by  the  consent  of  the  governed ;  and 
voluntary  aid  and  general  co-operation  were  as- 
sumed in  all  its  growth,  and  became  necessary 
conditions  to  its  action.  It  is  not  a  convenient 
instrument  for  tyranny. 

THROUOn    8EIJ-ISHXKS3   AND    INCAPACTTT. 

The  Republican  party,  finding  no  difficulty 
outside  of  itself,  found  a  difficulty  in  itself  which 
was  unsurmountable.  It  could  not  change  its 
own  nature.  If  it  could  have  generated  one  lead- 
er capable  of  the  generous  ambition  of  paciiicat- 
ing  the  country  and  founding  a  permanent  as- 
ceudanc'y  on  the  ultimate  public  opinion  of  the 
whole  country,  it  might  have  lived.  Even  a 
large  demagogue  might  have  been  a  national  ben- 
efaction, iiut  two  hundred  sbiall  demagogues — 
not  one  of  them  able  to  extend  his  vision  bv?yond 
the  horizon  of  one  congressional  disti-ict — nor 
having  much  moral  sway  over  the  opinion  of  his 
constituency — found  it  easier  and  safer  to  stimu- 
late the  hatreds  left  by  the  war  and  the  provin- 
cial passions  which  led  to  the  war,  than  to  act 
with  the  wise  moderation  of  a  coiuprehensive 
statesman  or  even  the  prudent  liberality  of  a 
conqueror, 

IT   RESOLVES   TO   ESTABLISH   NEGRO    SUPREMACr. 

The  Republican  party  recoiled  for  awhile  on  the 
fatal  brink  of  the  policy  on  which  it  at  last  em- 
barked. It  had  not  the  courage  to  conciliate  by 
magnanimity,  and  to  fouljd  its  alliances  and 
its  hopes  of  success  upon  the  better  qualities 
of  human  nature.  It  totally  abandoned  all  rela- 
tions to  the  white  race  of  the  ten  States.  It 
resolved  to  make  the  black  race  the  governing 
power  in  those  States ;  and  by  means  of  them 
to  bring  into  Congress  twenty  senators  and  fifty 
representatives — practically  appointed  by  itself 
in  Washington. 

It  is  evident  that  the  internal  government  of 
those  States  was  not  the  main  object  of  this  des- 
perate expedient.  The  State  organizations  had 
been  comparatively  neglected.  It  was  only 
through  new  State  organizations,  and  new  elec- 
toral bodies,  that  the  twenty  senators  and  fifty 
representatives  could  be  secured  to  the  Repub- 
lican party,  after  it  refused  to  trust  to  pacification. 

THE   OBJECT   TO   RULE   THE   NORTH. 

The  effect  of  a  gain  to  the  Republican  party 
of  twenty  senators  and  fifty  representatives 
ia  to  streagthen  its  hold  on  the  federal  govern- 
ment against  the  people  of  the  North.  Nor  is 
there  the  slightest  doubt  that  the  paramount 
object  and  motive   of   the  Republican  party  ig 


tion  of  opinion  adverse  to  it  in  our  great  populous 
northern  commonwealths.  The  effect  of  is 
system  and  its  own  real  purpose  is  to  estab- 
lish a  domination  over  us  of  the  northern  States, 

REC0^^3TRUCTI0N    BY    THE    SWORD. 

"When  the  Republican  party  resolved  to  es- 
tablish negro  supremacy  in  the  ten  States  in  or- 
der to  gain  to  itself  the  representation  of  those 
States  ill  Congress,  it  had  to  begin  by  governing 
the  people  of  those  States  bj''  the  sword.  The 
four  millions  and  a  half  of  whites  composed  the 
electoral  bodies.  If  they  were  to  be  put  under 
the  supremacy  of  the  three  millions  of  negroes, 
and  twenty  senators  and  fifty  representatives 
were  to  be  obtained  through  these  three  mil- 
lions of  negroes,  it  was  necessary  to  obliterate 
every  vestige  of  local  authority,  whether  it  had 
existed  before  the  rebellion  or  been  instituted 
since  by  Mr.  Lincoln  or  by  the  people.  A  bay- 
onet had  to  be  set  to  supervise  and  control  every 
local  organization.  The  military  dictatorship 
had  to  be  extended  to  the  remotest  ramifications 
of  human  society.     That  was  the  fir.it  necessity. 

NEG^O   SUPREMACY. 

The  next  was  the  creation  of  now  electoral 
bodies  for  those  ten  States;  in  which,  by  exclu- 
sions, by  disfranchisements  and  proscriptions, 
by  control  over  registration,  by  applying  test 
oaths  operating  retrospectively  and  prospect- 
ively, by  intimidation,  andjjj'  every  form  of  in- 
fluence, three  millions  of  negroes  are  made  to 
predominate  over  four  and  a  half  millions  of 
whites.  These  three  millions  of  negroes — three- 
fourths  of  the  adult  male  portion  of  whom  are 
field  hands,  who  have  been  worked  in  gangs  on 
the  plantations,  and  are  immeasurably  inferior  to 
the  free  blacks  whom  we  know  in  the  North — 
who  have  never  had  even  the  education  which 
might  be  acquired  in  the  support  of  themselves 
or  in  the  conduct  of  any  business,  and  who,  of 
all  their  race,  have  made  the  least  advance  frOiii 
the  original  barbarism  of  their  ancestors — have 
been  organized  in  compact  masses  to  form  the 
ruling  power  in  these  ten  States.  They  have 
been  disassociated  from  their  natural  relations  to 
the  intelligence,  humanity,  virtue,  and  piety  of 
the  white  race ;  set  up  in  complete  antagonis.u 
to  the  whole  white  race,  for  the  purpose  of  being 
put  over  the  white  race ;  and  for  the  purpose  of 
being  fitted  to  act  with  unity  and  become  com- 
pletely impervious  to  the  influence  of  superior 
iatellect  and  superior  moral  and  social  power  in 
the  communities  of  which  they  form  a  part/ 

Of  course,  such  a  process  has  repelled,  with 
inconsiderable  exceptions,  the  entire  white  race 
in  the  ten  States.  It  has  repelled  the  moderate 
portion  who  had  reluctantly  yielded  to  secession. 
It  has  repelled  those  who  had  remained  unionists. 
The  first  fruit  of  the  Republican  policy  is  the 
complete  separation  of  the  two  races,  and  to 
some  exteut  their  antagonism. 

THE   MEANS. 

How,  my  fellow-citizens,  has  this  work  been 
accomplished,  and  at  whbse  cost  ? 

The  main  instruments  have  been  the  Freed- 
man's  Bureau  and  the  Army  of  the  United  States. 

The  Frcedman's  Bureau  is  parily  an  eleemos- 
ynary establishment,  which  dispenses  alms  to 
the  liberated  slaves  and  assumes  to  be  their 
friend  and  protector.  It  is,  to  a  large  extent,  a 
job,  for  its  dependents  and  their  speculative  as- 
sociates.     But,  in   its  principal  character,  it  ia 


10 


%  political  machine  to  organize  and  manage  the 
three  millions  of  negroes. 

It3  cost,  as  reported  by  itself,  to  the  public 
treasury,  for  the  last  two  years,  is  about  ten 
millions  of  dollars. 

The  army  is  used  to  overawe  the  ■white  race, 
and  sometimes  to  work  and  sometimes  to  shelter 
the  working  of  the  political  system  which  goes 
on  under  the  military  governments  of  the  ten 
States. 

Tira    COST. 

You  have  seen  telegrams  announcing  the  rc- 
■dnction  of  the  army  expenses.  Wl>ea  I  was  in 
Washington  week  before  last,  I  took  some  pains 
to  ascertain  the  truth.  I  am  able  to  inform  you, 
from  authentic  data,  that  the  monthly  payments 
at  the  treasury,  for  army  expenses,  up  to  the  be- 
ginning of  the  present  montli,  exceed  twelve 
millions.  I  assert  that  they  are  now, — to-day, — 
running  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  mil- 
lions per  annum.  They  have  not  been  less,  but 
probably  more,  for  the  two  years  past.  This  does 
not  include  pensions,  which  are  thirty -six  mil- 
lions more. 

Remember  that  it  is  excessive  taxation  which 
crushes  the  industrious  masses' in  European  mon- 
archies and  despotisms ;  and  that  this  taxation  is 
mainly  caused  by  their  military  establishments, 
kept  up  by  the  ambitions  of  their  rulers,  by  their 
mutual  jealousies,  and  by  the  fears  which  tyriints 
entertain  of  th(?!r  own  peoples. 

Remember  that  oifr  wise  ancestors  warned  us 
against  standing  armies  and  all  those  false  sys- 
tems of  government  which  reqi;ire  standing  ar- 
raiea.  They  formed  tiic  Union  of  the  States  that 
we  might  be  free  from  the  jealousies  of  co-termi- 
nous  countries,  which  have  been  the  usual  pretext 
of  tyrants  for  maintaining  costly  military  estab- 
lishments. They  founded  that  union  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  local  self-government, — to  be  everywhere 
carried  on  by  the  voluntary  co-operation  of  the 
governed.  They  did  not  intend  that  one  part  of 
our  country  should  govern  another  part,  as  Eu- 
ropean tyrants  govern  their  subjects.  Rebellion, 
M"hich  for  a  time  disturbed  this  beneficent  system, 
is  conquered.  But  we  do  not  return  to  govern- 
ment on  the  principles  of  our  fathers.  The  south- 
ern people  are  willing  and  anxious  to  do  so.  We 
refuse.  See  how  the  refusal  brings  upon  us  the 
calamities  foretold  by  the  prophetic  statesmen 
and  patriots  of  1776  and  1787.  Compare  the  army 
expenses  of  free  America  with  those  of  the  mili- 
tary powers  of  Europe. 

Great  Britain,  which  encircles  the  globe  with 
her  riiilitary  posts,  and  rules  in  dependent  provin- 
ces one  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  subjects,  ex- 
pended for  her  armies,  including  pensions,  in 
1866-7,  about  14,340,000  pounds,  and  in  1867-8, 
about  14,752,000  pounds,  or  about  seventy-two 
millions  of  dollars  a  j'ear. 

France,  which  stands  at  the  head  of  the  mili- 
tary powers  of  Europe,  expendcl  for  her  army,  as 
the  average  of  seven  years  officially  reported, 
about  eiglity-six  millions  of  dollars. 

Prussia,  whicli  has  just  consolidated  under  her 
dominion  tlie  new  Germanic  empire,  expended 
on  her  army,  in  1867,  about  twenty -nine  millions 
of  dollars.  And  we,  free  America,  wlio  have  of- 
fered up  the  lives  of  two-tliirds  of  a  million  of  our 
youth,  and  more  tlian  three  tliousand  millions  of 
dollars  to  restore  the  Union  and  escape  the  neces- 
sity and  the  pretexts  for  such  military  establish- 
ments,— after  our  abject  ought  to  be  completely 
accomplished,  find  ourselves  subjected  to  more 


than  fifteen  millions  a  month,-;-more  than  half  a 
million  a  day, — about  one  hundred  and  eighty-.six 
millii)ns  a  year  for  army  expenses  and  pensions, 
as  two  items  of  the  cost  of  our  government. 
Now,  I  assert  two  facts: 

First.  The  main  employment  of  the  anny  is 
in  occupying  the  Southern  States. 

Secondly.  If  the  Union  were  fully  restored,  the 
army  expimses  can  be,  and  ought  to  be  reduced 
100  or  125  millions  a  year.  The  average  for  th.e 
ten  years  prior  to  the  rebellion,  was  about  15  mil- 
lions ;  and  our  experience  in  raising  volunteers 
shows  that  a  large  standing  army  is  unnecessary. 
You  may  safely  count  that  reconstruction  car- 
ried on  by  these  military  governments  costs  you 
at  least  one  hundred  m  llions  a  year  in  army  ex- 
penses, unnecessary  for  any  other  purpose.  To 
carry  on  the  experiment  of  negro  supremacy  in 
the  ten  States  for  two  j'ears;  to  bring  in  twenty 
senators  and  fifty  representatives, — deputies  of 
the  three  millions  of  liberated  slaves,  allies  and 
instruments  of  the  party  objects  of  the  Republi- 
cans, will  cost  you  two  hundred  millions  of  dol- 
lars in  direct  army  expenses.  How  much  more 
in  other  expensos,  created  or  permitted  to  con- 
tinue— how  much  in  future  years,  I  can  only  con- 
jecture. I  venture  to  predict  that  five  hundred 
millions  will  not  consummate  the  system. 

These  immense  sums  have  to  be  wrung  from 
the  people  in  taxes  which  cost  those  who  pay 
them  much  more  than- the  amount  thus  expended ; 
at  a  time  when  the  illusions  of  paper  money  are 
passing  away,  and  the  country  discovers  itself  ex- 
hausted and  impoverished  by  war ;  when  no  com- 
merce is  profitable,  and  nearly  all  manufactures 
are  carried  on  at  a  loss;  when  labor  is  scantily 
employed,  and  the  cost  of  livirig  is  high ;  when 
taxation  closely  approaches  to  the  whole  net 
income  of  all  capital  and  all  labor  in  the  country ; 
and,  when  this  condition  is  daily  growing  worse, 
and  can  only  be  alleviated  by  reducing  expenses, 
rtinitting  taxes,  liberating  trade  and  industry, 
and  restoring  them  to  their  natural  courses. 

8ENAT0EIAI,   REl'EESENTATION. 

If  those  three  millions  of  negroes  elect 
twenty  senators  and  fifty  representatives,  they 
wid  have  ten  times  as  much  pjwer  in  the 
Senate  of  tiie  United  States  as  the  four  millions 
of  whites  in  the  State^of  New  York.  On  every 
question  which  concerns  the  commercial  metro- 
polis—every question  of  trade,  of  finance,  of 
currency,  of  revenue,  and  of  taxation,  these 
three  millions  of  liberated  African  slaves  will 
count  ten  times  as  much  in  the  Senate  as  four 
millions  of  New  Yorkers.  One  freedinan  will 
counterbalance  thirteen  white  citizens  of  the  Em- 
pire State.  These  three  millions  of  blacks  will 
count  tea  times  as  much  as  three  millions  of 
wliite  people  in  Pennsylvania;  ten  times  as  much 
as  two  and  a  half  millions  in  Ohio ;  ten  times  as 
much  as  two  and  a  quarter  or  two  and  a  half  mil- 
lions in  Illinois ;  ten  times  as  much  as  one  million 
and  a  half  in  Indiana.  These  three  millions  of 
blacks  will  have  twice  the  representation  iu 
the  Senate,  which  will  be  possessed  by  the  five 
great  commonwealths — New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois — embracing  thirteen 
and  a  half  millions  of  our  people. 

USURPATIOXS  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTT. 

Let  me  not  be  told  that  this  enormous  wrong 
is  nothing  more  than  an  original  defect  of  the 
Constitution.     I  answer  that  it  derives  most  of 


11 


\iB  evil  and  its  (Linger  fi-om  the  usurpations  of 
tlie  Republican  party. 

WORK   A    PRAOTIOAI,  REVOLUTION. 

"We  have  now  reached  a  period  wlien  every- 
thing valuable  in  the  Constitution  and  in  the 
government  as  formed  by  our  fathers  is  brought 
into  peril.  Men's  minds  are  unsettled  by  the 
civil  strifes  throu;i,h  v/hich  wo  have  passed.  The 
body  of  traditionary  ideas  which  limited  the 
struggles  of  parties  within  narrow  and  fixed 
boundaries  is  broken  up.  A  temporary  party 
majority,  having  complete  sway  over  the  leg- 
islative bodies,  discpds  all  standards, — whether 
embodied  in  laws,  constitutions,  or  in  elementary 
and  organic  principles  of  free  government ; 
acts  its  own  pleasure  as  absolutely  as  if  it  were 
a  revolutionary  convention;  and  deems  every- 
thing legitimate,  which  can  serve  its  party  aims. 

Changes  are  dared  and  attempted  by  it,  with 
a  success  which,  I  trust,  is  but  temporary — 
changes  which  revolutionize  the  whola  nature  of 
our  government: 

IN   SUFFRAGE. 

First.  If  there  be  anything  fundamental  in 
government  or  in  human  society,  it  is  the  ques- 
tion, what  elements  shall  compose  the  electoral 
bodies  from  which  emanate  all  the  governing 
powers.  The  Constitution  left  the  State.=i  with 
exclusive  power  over  the  suffrage ;  and  the  States 
have  always  defined  and  protected  the  suffrage 
from  change  b}'  their  fundamental  laws.  Con- 
press  now  usurps  control  over  the  whole  subject 
in  the  ten  States ;  and  creates  negro  constitu- 
encies, and  vests  them  with  nearly  a  third  of 
the  whole  representation  in  the  Senate,  and 
Dearly  a  quarier  of  the  whole  representation  in 
the  House.  The  leaders  of  the  Republican  par- 
ty also  claim  the  power  by  c  ;ngressional  act  to 
regulate  the  suffrage  in  the  loj-al  States :  and, 
without  the  consent  of  the  people  of  those  States, 
to  alter  their  constitutions,  and  involve  them 
in  a  political  partnership  with  inferior  races. 

IN   TIIE   REPRESENTATION. 

Secondly/.  Congress,  by  the  methods  and  means 
I  have  traced,  usurps  control  over  the  repre- 
sentation in  the  two  branches  of  the  national 
leo-islature,  and  packs  thoie  bodies  with  dele- 
gates, admitting  or  rejecting  for  party  ends, 
and  at  length  attempting  to  create  a  permanent 
majority  by  deputies  from  negro  constituencies 
formed  for  that  purpose. 

IN   AESORBINQ    THE   STATES. 

Thirdly.  Congress  has  not  only  fettered  the 
trade  and  industries  of  the  country  for  the  benefit 
of  special  interests  and  classes,  but  it  has  ab- 
sorbed many  powers  and  functions  of  the  State 
governments  which  are,  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson's celebrated  inaugural,  "  the  most  competent 
adiiiinistratinns  for  our  domedlc  concerns,the  surest 

BULWARK     AGAINST    ANTI-REPUBUCAN    TENDENCIES;" 

and  it  is  rapidly   centralizing  all  our  political 
institutions. 

IN   OR'JSIU.Va   THE   CO-ORDINATE   DEPARTMENTS. 

Fnurlhty.  Congress  is  systematically  breaking 
down  all  the  divisions  of  power  between  the  co- 
ordinate departments  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment, which  the  Constitution  established,  and 
whicli  have  alwaj'^.been  considered  as  essential 
to  the  very  existence  of  constitutional  represent- 
ative government. 

The  universal  conviction  of  all  our  revered 
statesmen   and  patriots,  ia,  in  the  language   of 


Mr.  jKFifERsoN,  that  "the  concentration  of  legislw- 
tive,  executive  and  judicial  powers  in  the  same  hands 
is  precisely  the  definition  of  despotic  (government." 
"  An  ELECTIVE  DESPOTISM,"  Said  he,  "  was  not  the 
government  we  fought  for,  but  one  which  should 
not  only  be  founded  on  free  principles,  but  in 
which  the  powers  of  government  should  be  so 
divided  among  several  bodies  of  magistracy,  as 
that  no  one  could  transcend  their  legal  limits 
witliout  being  effectually  checked  and  restrained 
by  the  others." 

THE   EXECUTIVE. 

In  violation  of  these  principles,  Congress  has 
stripped  the  President  of  his  constitutional  pow- 
ers over  his  subordinates  in  the  executive  func- 
tion,— and  even  over  his  own  confidential  ad- 
visers ;  and  vested  these  powers  in  the  Senate. 
It  is  now  exercising  the  power  of  removing  from 
office  the  President  elected  by  the  people,  and 
appointing  another  in  his  jilace;  under  the  form 
of  a  trial,  but  without  the  pretence  of  actual 
crime,  or  anything  more  than  &  mere  difference 
of  opinion. 

THE   JUDICIARY. 

It  has  menaced  the  Judiciary;  at  one  time 
proposing  to  create  by  law  an  incapacity  in  the 
Supreme  Court  to  act  by  a  majority,  in  any  case 
where  it  should  disagree  with  Congress ;  at  an- 
other time,  proi)Osing  to  divest  that  tribunal  of 
jurisdiction  exercised  by  it  from  the  foundation  of 
the  government  to  decide  between  an  ordinary  law 
and  the  Constitution,  which  is  tlie  fundamental 
and  supreme  law.  There  is  reason  to  believe  also 
that  a  plan  has  been  matured  to  overthrow  the 
Court  by  the  creation  of  new  judges  to  make  a 
majority  more  subservient  to  Congress,  than  the 
judges  appointed  by  Mr.  Lincoln  are  found  to  be. 

ELECTIVE   DESPOTISM. 

These  changes  are  organic.  They  would  rev- 
olutionize the  very  nature  of  the  government. 
They  would  alter  every  important  part  of  its 
structure  on  which  its  authors  relied  to  secure 
good  laws  and  good  administration,  and  to  pre- 
serve civil  liberty.  They  would  convert  it  into 
an  ELECTIVE  DESPOTISM.  The  chan^-e  could  not 
by  possibility  stop  at  that  stage. 

IMPERIALISM. 

I  avow  the  con\dction,  founded  on  all  history 
and  on  the  concurring  judgment  of  all  our  great 
statesmen  and  i)atriot3,  that  such  a  system,  if 
continued,  would  pass  into  imperialism.  I  feel 
not  less  certain  that  the  destruction  of  all  local 
self-government  in  a  country  so  extensive  as  ours, 
and  embracing  such  elements  of  diversity  in  hab- 
its, manners,  opinions  and  interests,  and  the  ex- 
ercise by  a  single,  centralized  authority  of  all  the 
powers  of  society  over  so  vast  a  region  and  over 
such  populations,  would  entail  upon  us  an  indefi- 
nite series  of  civil  commotions,  and  repeat  here 
the  v;orst  crimes  and  worst  calamities  of  history. 

It  is  time  for  the  people  to  stay  these  destruc- 
tive tendencies,  and  to  declare  that  the  reaction 
from  secession  towards  centralism  shall  not  ef- 
fect the  ruin  which  secession  could  not  diructly 
accomplish. 

SENATORIAL   OLIGARCnV. 

Coming  back  now  to  the  subject  of  the  sena- 
torial representation,  I  ask  you  to  consider  how 
different  it  is,  and  how  vastlj^  more  inrportant 
when  viewed  in  the  light  of  such  changes  in  the 
nature  and  structure  of  our  Government. 

The  inequality  of  the  representation  of  the  peo 


12 


pie  in  the  Senate  was  conceded,  as  a  compromise, 
on  the  surrender  of  State  independence  and  for 
tlie  protection  of  State  rights.  When  State 
rio;hts  are  obliterated  from  our  system,  all  the 
original  reasons  for  such  inequality  will  have 
disappeared.  When  all  local  selS-governnjents 
give  way  to  centralism,  that  inequality  will  be- 
come intolerable.  The  Senate  as  a  mere  clieck- 
ing  body  on  the  House  and  on  the  Executive,  in 
a  federal  govei'nment,  itself  exercising  but  lim- 
ited powers,  is  one  tliiug.  The  Senate  absorbing 
— in  common  with  the  House — all  the  powers  of 
the  States,  all  the  powers  of  the  Judiciary,  and 
many  of  the  powers  of  the  Executive,  and  grasp- 
ing, for  itself  alone,  control  over  all  the  olhcers 
who  carry  on  the  executive  machinery,  over  tlie 
army,  and  over  the  agencies  which  collect  and 
disburse  live  hundi-ed  millions  a  year — is  a  veiy 
different  thing.  The  long  tenure  and  indirect 
election  of  the  senators,  enables  that  body  to  hold 
power  for  a  while  agamst  the  people.  If  mem- 
bers are  admitted  or  rejected  to  perpetuate  a 
party  majority — if  new  States  are  formed,  with 
small  populations,  for  that  ]jurpose — if  twenty 
nominees  of  the  three  millions  of  emancipated 
slaves  are  brought  in,  the  body  will  be  for  a  jie- 
riod  practically  self-elective.  If  we  are  to  be 
governed  by  a  senatorial  oligarchy,  the  people  of 
the  great  populous  States  which  occupy  the  vast 
region  stretching  from  the  Hudson  to  the  Missis- 
sippi will  ask — WHO  are  to  cuoose  the  ouGAEcns  ? 

USURPATION     OF'  CONTROL     OVER    SUFFRAGE    IN    THE 
STATES. 

I  recur  for  a  moment  to  the  claim  made  by  the 
leaders  of  the  Republican  party  that  Congress  has 
power  to  alter  the  suffrage  within  the  iiorthern 
States  as  well  as  the  Southern ;  in  the  loyal  as 
well  as  the  rebellious  couiniunities.  Mr.  Thad- 
DEus  Stevens  and  Mi".  Charles  Sujiner  have  pub- 
licly claimed  this  power.  The  Tribune  has  claimed 
it.     Mr.  Speaker  Colfax  has  asserted  it,  and  pro- 

Eosed  to  apply  it  to  Kentucky,  Maryland  and 
•elaware. 

ITS   OBJECTS. 

Their  objects  and  motives  are  disclosed. 

The  Trihi^ie,  on  the  16th  of  October  last,  ex- 
claimed to  its  hesitating  followers: 

•'  For  the  Republicans  are  bound  to  go  under 
(thank  God)  if  they  don't  enfranchise  the  blacks." 

Mr.  Sumner,  in  a  letter  to  the  editor  of  the  In- 
dependent, avowed  the  purpose  and  the  motive : 

"  Senate  Chamber,  20th  April,  1867. 
"  My  Dear  Sir : — You  wish  to  have  the  North 
'  reconstructed,'  so  at  least  that  it  shall  cease  to 
deny  the  elective  franchise  on  account  of  color. 
But  you  postpone  the  day  by  insisting  on  the  pre- 
liminary of  a  constitutional  ameudmeut.  I  know 
your  vows  to  the  good  cause;  but  ask  you  to 
make  liaste.     We  caimot  wait         *  *  * 

This  question  must  be  settled  without  delay.  In 
other  words,  it  must  be  settled  before  the  Presi- 
dcnllal  election,  which  is  at  hand.  Our  colored 
fellow-citizens  at  tiie  South  are  already  voters. 
They  will  vote  at  the  Presidential  election.  But 
why  should  they  vote  at  the  Soutli  and  not  at  the 
Kortii?  The  rule  of  justice  is  the  same  for  both. 
'  Their  votes  are  needed  at  the  North  as  well  as  the 
South.  There  are  Northern  States  where  their 
votes  CAn  make  the  good  cause  safe  beyond  ques- 
tion. 

'  "  Tliere  are  other  States  where  their  votes  will 
be  like  the  last  prepofiderant  weight  in  the 
nicely-balanced  scales.     Let  our  colored  fellow- 


citizens  vote  in  Maryland,  and  that  State,  now  so 
severely  tried  will  be  fixed  for  human  riglits  for- 
ever. Let  them  vote  in  Pennsylvania,  and  you 
Mill  give  more  than  20,000  votes  to  the  Repub- 
lican cause.  Let  them  vote  in  New  York,  and 
the  scales  which  hang  so  doubtfully  will  incline 
to  the  Republican  cause.  It  will  be  the  same  in 
Connecticut.  *         *  *  Enfranchise- 

ment, which  is  the  corollary  and  complement  of 
emancipation,  nmat  be  a  nntiojial  act  also  proceed- 
inri  from  the  National  Government  and  applicable 
to  all  the  States." 

its   conseqlikces. 
Hitherto  the  great  right  of  the  citizen  to  a 
voice  in  choosing  his  rulers  has  been  safely  en- 
trenched in  the  constitutions  of  the  several  States. 
No  legislative  power    in   the   land,  Federal  or 
State,  could  touch  it.  No  temporary  political  as- 
cendancy, no  fluctuation  of  parties,  could  endan- 
ger it.     The  State  constitution  could  be  changed 
only  through  slow  processes,  imposing  delays,  in- 
suring deliberation,  and  generally  requiring  sev- 
eral submissions  to  a  vote   of  the  people.      To 
effect    a  change  throughout    the    Union  would 
requira  that  these  processes  be  carried  through 
in  each  State  separately.     But  once  abdicate  this 
rightful  authority  of  the  people  of  the  several 
States,  acting  in  their  organic  capacity ;  once   al- 
low Congress    to  usurp  jurisdiction    over    the 
si'ffrage  of  the  people  of  the  States ;  once  admit 
that  this  fundamental  right  may  be  changed   by 
a  mere  enactment  of  Congress,  without  submis- 
sion to  a  vote  of  the  people,  and  no  man  in  any 
State  can  tell  how  soon  his  vote  may  be  rendered 
worthless,  or  how  soon  it  may  be  taken  from  him. 
Mr.  SuiiNEU  avows  that  his  object  is  to  control 
the  next  Presidential  election.    Adopt  his  theory ; 
establish  tJie  precedent;  accustom  the  people  to 
acquiesce  in  the  usurpiatiou,  and  you  wdl  have 
a  congressional  majority  changing  the  suffrage 
whenever  it  may  be  a  convenient  means  of  keep- 
ing themselves  in  power.  An  ambitious  President, 
with  a  subservient  majority  in  Congress;  in  pos- 
session of  the  machinery  of   the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment;  our  political  system  centralized  under 
the  popular  reaction  against  the  heresy  of  seces- 
sion, until  the  moral  force  of  the  States  to  re- 
strain is  gone;  and  a  supreme  control   over  the 
suffrage  is  all  that  is  wanting  to  complete  and 
consummate  a  practical  revolution  iu  our  gov- 
ernment.    Your  future  masters  may  indulge  you 
a  wliile   in  the  forms  of  election,  if  the^'  be  al- 
lowed to  make  over   the   constituent  bodies  as 
often  and  as  much  as  they  please,  letting  in  and 
shutting  out   voter.s,  to  maintain  their   ascend- 
ancy.   An  addition  of  nine  hundred  and  thirty- 
two  thousand   negroes,    most   of    them   emanci- 
pated   slaves,   without  any    of  the  training  or 
traditions,  or  aspirations  of  freemen;  who  would 
as  soon  vote  to  make  their  favorite  an  emperor  aa 
to  make  him  a  president,  will  be  a  convenient  ac- 
cessory.   And  when  their  representatives  get  into 
power,  who  can  doubt  that  they  are  capable  of 
being  made  facile  instruments  of  excluding  op- 
ponents as  well  as  of  admitting  allies.     How  do 
you  think  Senator  Brownlow  and  his  twent}'  as- 
sociates would  vote  on  a  bill  to  regulate  the  suf- 
li-age  by  admitting  negroes  in  New  York,  Penn- 
sylvania, Ohio,  Indiana,  or  lllmois  ?    How  would 
they  vote  on  a  bill  to   regulate  the  suffrage   by 
excluding  Irishmen  or  Germans?    Do  you  think 
they  would  not  assert  the  superior  rights  of  the 
negroes  born  in  this  country  o  er  Ibreigners? 


13 


Is  it  not  at  least  prudent  for  all  who  possess  the 
suffrage  to  keep  the  regulation  of  it  where  it  now 
js — in  the  constitutions  of  the  several  States  ? 

WITH   WHOM    SHALL    WE     SOARE     SELF-GOVERNMENT? 

One  other  topic,  and  I  have  done:  Our  civil 
and  social  polity,  which  is  rapidly  extending  over 
the  unoccupied  portions  of  this  continent,  is 
peculiar.  The  ideal  to  which  it  is  approximating 
is  that  of  a  system  of  commonwealths  in  which 
all  are  equals  before  the  law,  and  aU  adult  males 
exercise  the  suffrage.  Our  wise  ancestors  warned 
us  that  this  grand  experiment  in  self-government 
would  turn  on  the  intelligence  and  virtue  of 
the  people ;  and  that  our  efforts  to  educate  and 
elevate  must  be  commensurate  with  our  diffusion 
of  political  rights  and  political  power.  It  is  a 
great  partnersliip  in  self-government.  Every 
man  jields  a  share  in  the  government  over  him- 
self to  ever}'^  other  man,  and  acquires  a  share  in 
the  government  over  that  other  man.  But  like  a 
partnership  in  business,  or  by  marriage  in  the 
family,  the  important  question  is,  with  whom  shall 
we  enter  into  so  intimate  and  complex  a  relation. 
The  American  people  have  always  answered  that 
question,  by  founOlng  tue  State  upon  the  family. 

Whatever  element  could  be  absorbed  into  the 
■  homogeneous  mass,  indistinguishable  as  a  drop  of 
water  in  the  ocean ;  whatever  element  could  be 
admitted  into  the  family,  which  is  the  basis  of 
societj',  has  been  admitted  into  the  State.  What- 
ever element  could  never  enter  the  family,  and 
could  only  exist  in  society  as  a  caste,  separate  and 
incapable  of  amalgamation  with  the  mass,  has 
been  refused  admission  into  the  State  as  a  part  of 
its  electoral  or  governing  body.  That  has  been 
the  principle.  Instances  of  deviation  have  hap- 
pened only  where  the  element  was  so  inconsider- 
able as  to  deprive  the  question  of  all  importance. 

We  have  everywhere  hitherto  refused  to  enter 
into  a  partnership  in  self-government  with  inferior 
■or  with  mixed  races. 

WITH     MEXICANS  ? 

I  remember  that  twenty-one  years  ago  there 
eeeraed  to  be  danger  that  the  spirit  of  territorial 
extension  would  lead  some  of  the  Democratic 
party  to  favor  the  absorption  of  all  of  Mexico  and 
the  incorporation  of  the  populated  portions  of 
that  country  into  our  system.  For  the  purpose  of 
checking  that  tendency,  a  declaration  was  pre- 
pared b}'  a  great  statesman  of  that  daj',  and  was 
made  public,  to  the  effect  that  to  hold  Mexico  as 
a  province  wauld  be  contrary  to  the  principles 
of  our  institutions,  and  would  tend  to  their  sub- 
version ;  and  that  the  destinies  of  our  great  ex- 
periment in  self-government  could  not  be  safely 
committed  to  the  issue  of  a  partnership  in  it  with 
the  six  millions  of  the  mixeil  races  which  formed 
three-quarters  ^f  the  population  of  Mexico.  I 
may  add  that,  being  consulted,  I  concurred  in 
the  measure. 

WITH    CmSESK? 

Professor  Fawcett,  in  his  recent  work  on  poli- 
tical economy,  predicts  that  immense  swarms  will 
yet  come  to  our  Pacific  possessions  from  the 
countless  millions  of  the  Chinese.  Could  we  ac- 
cept into  politieal  partnership  with  us  four  and 
a  half  millions  of  thcra  ?. 

WITH    INDIANS? 

The  Indians  were  here  before  us,  and  before 
the  importations  of  the  Africans.  If  four  and  a 
half  nuhious  of  Indians  stUl  existed  here,  with 


nine  hundred  and  thirty -two  thousand  males  over 
twenty-one  years  of  age,  would  any  man  seriously 
propose  to  enter  into  a  partnership  in  self-govern- 
ment with  them  ? 

WITH    AFRICANS? 

In  1860,  the  slaves  amounted  to  nearly  four 
millions,  and  the  free  colored  to  nearly  Jmlf  a 
million.  The  males  over  twenty -one  years  of  age, 
of  both  classes,  were  about  seven  hundred  and 
eiglit  thousand  in  the  ten  States,  and  about  two 
hundred  and  twenty-four  thousand  in  the  other 
States ;  making  an  aggregate  of  nine  hundred  and 
thirt^'-two  thousand. 

THE    GREAT    ELTIOPEAN    IMMIGRATION. 

Tlie  immigrants,  who  have  contributed  so  much 
to  swell  the  population  of  our  northern  States, 
spring  from  the  same  parent  stocks  with  our- 
selves. They  come  to  rejoin  their  kindred. 
Races  have  a  growth  and  culture  as  well  as  in- 
dividuals. What  a  race  has  been  many  centuries 
in  accumulating,  is  often  appropriated  and  devel- 
oped in  an  individua.  life,  in  the  ascent  from  the 
humblest  origin  to  the  higiiest  attainments  of  the 
species.  Our  accessions  are  drawn  from  races 
which  have  lived  under  essentially  the  same  cli- 
mactic inlluences  with  ourselves — which  have  at- 
tained the  highest  civilization — and  made  tlie 
largest  progress  in  the  arts  and  industries  of  man- 
kind. They  are  attracted  here  by  their  aspira- 
tions for  civil  liberty  or  for  tlie  improvement  of 
their  personal  condition ,  and  every  aspiration 
ennobles.  They  are  well  represented  in  all  our 
occupations  which  call  for  intellect  and  culture; 
and  even  the  portion  which  come  to  fill  the  ranks 
of  raw  labor  made  vacant  by  the  ascent  to  more 
skilled  and  more  remunerative  employments 
which  our  universal  education  opens  to  all,  show 
a  capacity  to  quickly  foUow  in  the  noble  compe- 
tition for  improvement.  The  theme  is  important 
and  interesting,  but  I  can  not  now  touch  so  great 
a  subject.  I  intended  merely  to  call  attention  to 
the  one  primary  fact. 

These  immigrants  enter  the  American  family, 
without  the  slightest  repugnance  on  either  side 
which  can  be  ascribed  to  diii'erences  of  race.  All 
the  various  motives  of  clioice,  which  operate  be- 
tween individuals  of  the  same  race  exist.  Eut 
there  is  no  repulsion  of  races.  They  commingle 
in  the  family.  I  cannot  discuss  what  the  effect 
will  be  upon  our  future  population.  The  opinion 
of  pliysiologista  seems  to  be  that  it  ought  to  form 
a  higher  type  of  mankind.  In  ilassachusetts  it 
appears  to  be  the  stay  of  the  population  from  a 
decline.  In  1865,  while  the  American  population 
was  79  per  cent.,  tlie  children  of  American  pa- 
rents were  but  45  per  cent. ;  and  of  mixed  parent- 
age 8  per  cent.  For  every  five  marriages  be- 
tween Americans,  there  was  one  between  an 
American  and  a  foreign-born  person ;  and  of 
these  mixed  marriages  nearly  three-lifths  were 
foreign  males  with  American  brides.  The  foreign- 
born  residents  of  Massachusetts  are  chiefly  Irish. 
The  secretary  of  tlie  Commonwealth,  in  his  last 
statistical  report,  drily  observes :  "  The  domestic- 
ation of  foreign  agricultural  laborers  in  the  hornet 
of  American  farmers  may  be  the  cause  of  this." 

THE    SOCIAL    ORGANISM. 

In  our  body  politic,  as  in  the  human  system, 
what  canbe  digested  and  assimilated  is  nutrition; 
it  is  the  source  of  health  and  life.  What  remains 
incapable  of  being  digested  and  assimilated  can 


14 


be  only  an  element  of  disease  and  death.  The 
question  in  respect  to  it  is  always  this: — Whether 
the  vital  forces  are  strong  enough  to  prevail  over 
it,  and  excrete  it  from  the  system. 

One  might  carry  this  analogy  fiirlher.  In  1700, 
the  group  of  States  north  of  Mason  aud  Dixon's 
line,  and  the  group  of  States  south,  had  each  a 
population  rather  less  than  2,000,000.  They  dif- 
fered a  little  more  than  7,000. 

nQIIGa.\TI0N    OVERTHREW    SLAVERY. 

After  careful  examination,  I  am  satisfied  that 
all  the  superiority  -which  the  North  gained  in 
population  in  the  seventy  years  between  1790  and 
1860  may  be  traced  to  iminigrjition. 

I  have  ever  felt  tl>e  greatest  interest  in  the 
form  of  society  in  which  I  was  boVn,  and  been 
ready  to  defend  and  protect  it.  As  soon  as  the 
great  development  of  immigration,  which  began 
twenty-one  years  ago,  was  apparent  as  an  endur- 
ing force,  I  felt  that  we  of  the  North  could  safely 
trust  to  it  all  questions  between  tlie  rival  systems 
of  industry  and  society  which  existed  in  our  coun- 
try, and  that  the  highest  statesmanship  was  to 
keep  the  j^eace  between  the  sections  until  both 
should  see  that  a  power  greater  than  eitlicr  had 
determined  the  ultimate  solution  of  every  such 
controversy. 

AND  GAVE  SUCCESS  TO  TUE  NORTH  IN  THE  WAR. 

The  ascendency  of  the  North  in  the  govern- 
ment, its  triumpli  in' the  war,  are  both  due  to  the 
Bame  cause.  Of  the  immigrants  who  have  come 
here  within  forty  years,  from  1820  to  1860,41  1-2 
per  cent,  were  males  between  the  ages  of  15  aud 
40,  while  but  twenty-one  and  a  half  per  cent,  of  our 
own  white  population  in  1860  was  of  the  sanie 
class.  In  21  years,  from  Jan.  1,  1847,  to  Jan.  1, 
1868,  two  millions  and  a  third  of  males  between 
15  and  40  liave  been  added  to  our  strength,  or 
about  as  much  as  are  contained  in  eleven  and  a 
half  millions  of  our  population. 

If  the  South  had  succeeded  in  establishing  a 
separate  government,  it  must  still  have  confronted 
the  same  difficulty,  and  must,  by  exclusion,  have 
dwarfed  itself  by  our  side  into  impotcnc}',  or 
within  fifty  years  have  reproduced  the  same  con- 
flict witliin  Its  own  boundaries. 

Whetlier  the  renovation  of  the  South  must  be 
looked  for  from  the  same  source,  in  a  constant 
enlargement  of  the  proportion  of  the  whites, — with 
a  diminished  rate  of  natural  increase  for  the 
blacks,  and  a  continued  drift  of  them  toward  the 
tropics,  is  a  speculation  on  which  I  will  not  now 
ent.er. 

But  of  one  thing  we  may  be  assured.  The  ad- 
mission of  the  inferior  races  into  our  political  sys- 
tem is  simply  a  question  of  quantity.  As  a  sepa- 
rate people,  I  have  heard  no  man  profess  to 
believe  that  they  could  maintain  such  a  govern- 
ment as  ours.  There  is  no  experience  to  warrant 
such  an  expectation.  The  experiment  is  a  failure 
in  Mexico.  It  is  a  failure  everywhere  in  South 
America.  The  question  recurs, — how  much  of  so 
evil  a  ililution  we  can  afford  ? 

The  presence  of  the  race  here  raises  the  ques- 
tion; it  creates  a  diflicult  problem,  wiiich  ought 
to  be  dealt  with  in  a  spirit  of  liberal  humanity, 
and  of  wise  statesmanship. 

ALIE.NAGE    NOT    MAI#Ly    A   QUESTION    OF    BmTH. 

But  there  are  other  things  besides  the  rights 
and  interests  of  the  blacks  to  be  considered ; 
:ithQr  rii^bts  ana  interests  to  be  consulted.    Theie 


is  an  alienage  more  incurable  than  the  alienage 
of  birth.  Is  the  descendant  who  conies  hore  now 
of  a  neighbor  or  a  relative  of  my  ancestor  who 
came  here  almost  two  and  a  half  centuries  ago, 
less  to  me  than  the  descendant  of  a  barbarian 
from  Africa  who  came  to  South  Carolina  by  an  act 
which  we  now  stigmatize  and  punish  as  piracy  V 

Our  laws  require  for  the  immigrant  of  our 
o^vn  blood,  who  comes  from  the  most  highly  civ- 
ilized nations  of  Europe,  and  of  a  race  perfecte4 
by  many  centuries  of  culture, — however  great 
may  be  his  personal  endowments, — a  novitiate  of 
five  years.  The  llepublicans  require  none  for  the 
emancipated  slaves.  The  suffrage  amendment 
adopted  by  the  Republican  majoritj'  of  our  Con- 
stitutional Convention,  enables  every  one  of  the 
920,000  now  outside  of  this  State  to  come  here, 
and  on  a  year's  residence,  exercise  the  sufl'rage 
and  become  eligible  to  all  our  oflicial  trusts.  It 
invites  them  to  come.  The  Republicans  were  not 
content  to  confine  these  privileges  to  sucli  as  are 
now  residents  here, — or  to  such  as  were  born  here, 
or  such  as  have  already  acquired  the  suffrage. 
They  extended  the  offer  to  the  whole  class ;  and 
they  voted  down  a  proposition,  to  impose  upon 
such  as  might  come  into  the  State,  a  novitiate 
analogous  to  that  which  is  imposed  on  immigrauta, 
Theydid  this  while  inventing  and  applj-ing  every 
ingenious  obstruction  to  tlie  exercise  of  the  suf- 
frage by  the  adopted  citizen  aud  by  the  wMte; 
race  generally'. 

Probably  no  large  number  will  come ;  but  that 
cannot  be  certainly  foreseen.  At  any  rate,  it  is 
not  the  best  reason  for  making  a  rule,  that  it  will 
probably  be  inoperative ;  but,  if  it  were  to  be 
operative,  could  not  be  endured.  As  a  judgment 
on  the  question  of  the  relative  fitness  of  the 
classes, — which  it  theoretically  is, — it  i3  absurd 
and  unjust. 


ALIENAGE    A    QUESTION    OF 

I  deny  that  the  mere 
important  than  the  natur 
A  man  born  in  the  land 
become,  in  every  essential 
here  almost  immediately, 
an  African  may  be,  after 
still  an  alien. 


CHARAOTER AFFINITT. 

place  of  birth  is  more 
e  of  tlie  man  himself. 
of  our  ancestors  may 
characteristic,  a  native 
A  man  descended  from 
the  lapse  of  centuries. 


THE    QUESTION    OF   EIGHTS. 

If  a  Mississippi  plantation  hand  has  a  ri<jht  to 
demand  of  every  New  Yorker  that  the  two  should 
divide  equally  the  government  of  both,  I  should 
like  to  be  instructed  as  to  the  origin  and  nature  of 
that  right.  Is  it  a  constitutional  right?  I  answer 
that  the  Constitution  leaves  the  whole  matter  to 
the  States.  Is  it  a  natural  right  ?  I  ask  whether 
he  has  also  a  natural  right  to  thirteen  times  aa 
much  voice  in  the  Senate  as  a  New  Yorker. 

Has  he  likewise  a  "natural  right"  that  the 
State  governments  be  stripped  of  their  constitu- 
tional authorities — and  the  federal  executive  and 
the  federal  judiciary — cnr]  th;)t  aC  v^ie  omvor')  of 
human  society  on  this  continent  b^  concent r-ilc'l 
in  Congress,  and  a  disproportionate  share  of  tlioin 
in  the  Senate?  Has  he  a  natural  right  that  his 
representation  in  that  body  (thirteeu  times  that 
of  a  New  Yorker)  should  become  a  rei)resenta- 
tion,  so  disproportioned,  in  all  the  governing  pow- 
ers of  our  country  ? 

Jliglit  not  the  New  Yorker  ask  that  he  wai^  * 
little,  and  have  the  readjustments  on  both  b\iUis 
take  place  at  the  same  time — at  least  so  far  that 
the  natui-al  right  of  the  Mississippi  plantation- 


15 


hand  should  not  swallow  up  all  the  natural  rights 
of  the  New  Yorker  ? 

I  demand  to  know  a  little  further  of  the  quality 
of  this  natural  riglit.  How  did  this  Jlississippi 
plantation-liand  acquire,  as  against  this  New 
Yorker,  a  natural  right  to  the  suflrage  denied  to 
this  New  Yorker's  wife  or  to  his  son,  il'  under 
twenty-one  ? 

il  have  said  that  the  presence  of  the  race  here 
creates  a  problem  which  ought  to  be  considered 
wisely  and  humanelj\  But  does  it  create  an  ab- 
solute right  to  the  suffrage  and  to  eligibility  to 
official  trusts  ?  The  race  is  not  here  by  our  act. 
This  New  Yorker,  whose  rights  and  interests  are 
so  deeply  concerned,  did  not  bring  the  African 
her^  Let  us  be  just.  Neither  did  the  southern 
people.  That  presence  here  is  the  fatal  fruit  of 
the  rapacity  of  the  English  government  in  a  for- 
mer age,  against  the  persistent  remonstrances  of 
Virginia,  which  was  then  the  South. 

I  deny  that  the  mere  fact  of  that  presence 
here  creates  such  absolute  and  unlimited  rights 
as  are  claimed  for  it,  to  a  partnership  in  stif- 
government — against  us  who  are  in  no  manner 
responsible  for  that  presence.  I  deny  that  it  di- 
vests us  of  the  right  to  exercise  a  reasonable  pre- 
caution for  our  own  safety.  I  especially  deny 
that  it  gives  them  a  right  to  rule  us,  lest  per- 
chance we  may  abuse  our  jwwer  over  them. 

)J  say  there  are  other  rights  and  interests  to  be 
consulted  besides  those  of  the  emancipated  slaves. 
The  rights  and  interests  of  that  class  are  entitled 
to  thoughtful  care;  and  no  man  would  rejoice 
more  than  mj'self  to  see  them  advance  in  the 
scale  of  humanity.  But  I  think  the  system  adopt- 
ed by  the  Republicans  is  a  great  mistake  even 
for  the  welfare  of  that  class.  They  live  in  the 
midst  of  the  white  race  in  their  own  localities. 
They  must  ultimately  need  good  relations  with 
the  commuuit}'  of  which  they  are  a  part.  "What 
can  be  done  for  them  must  at  last  be  done  through 
the  white  race  in  their  localities,  which  can  under- 
stand and  manage  the  complicated  relations  of 
their  condition  better  than  anybody  else.  The 
North  can  not.  The  Federal  Government  can  not. 
That  tlie  white  race  would  not  have  fultilled  this 
trust,  iT  allowed,  with  justice  and  humanity,  in 
the  main,  there  is  no  ground  to  dispute  but  pre- 
judice and  hatred.  At  any  rate,  no  machinery 
can  long  be  maintained  by  jis  to  supervise  such 
relations. 

-  To  put  the  freedmen  in  supremacy  over  the  white 
race  in  ten  States,  in  order  to  protect  the  inter- 
ests of  the  freedman,  is  an  absurdity  inferior  on- 
ly to  the  next  expedient,  of  giving  them  a-  prac- 
tical domination  in  the  Federal  Government,  over 
the  whole  North,  in  order  to  perfect  and  consum- 
mate that  protection. 

•,'  IHE    LATE    "slave   POWEtt." 

The  Republicans  have  educated  our  people  to 
overthrow  what  they  called  the  "  Slave  Power." 
Analyze  it.  What  was  it?  It  was  the  influence 
which  350,000  heads  of  families,  embracing 
2,000,000  of  the  wliite  race,  owning  slaves,  and 
living  intermingled  with  6,000,000  of  other 
whites  not  owning  slaves,  were  capable  of  exer- 
cising, over  public  opinion,  and  thereby  upon 
the  government.  It  gave  us  Washington,  Jeffer- 
son, Madison,  Munroe,  Jackson,  Marshall,  Clay, 
and  hosts  of  other  statesmen  and  patriots ;  and 
whatever  influence  could  be  exercised  by  it  was 
only  through  the  consent  of  millions  of  civilized 
people  of  our  race. 


Tlie  struggle  to  overthrow  it  has  cost  tlie  whole 
country  a  million  of  lives,  and  four  thousand  mil- 
lions of  dollars. 

And  now  what  is  it  proposed  to  the  people  of 
tlie  gi-eat  populous  commonwealths  of  the  North 
to  accept  in  exciiange,  and  as  the  recompense  for 
such  immense  sacrUices  'i 

THE   COMIXa    NEGRO  POWER. 

The  political  power  of  the  States  where  slavery 
once  existed  will  remain,  and  after  the  next  cen- 
sus will  be  enlarged  by  tlie  representation  of  all, 
instead  of  threc-liftlis  of  the  former  slaves.  That 
power  in  the  ton  States,  if  the  system  of  the  Re- 
publicans shall  prevail  and  continue, — at  -any 
rate  for  the  next  few  years,  which  involve  pecu- 
liarly all  the  business  interests  of  the  country, — 
is  to  be  wielded  by  a  few  hundred  adventurers, 
through  the  three  millions  of  emancipated  slaves. 
And  the  centralization  of  our  governmental  au- 
thorities, will  cause  it  to  act  vastly  more  upon  all 
our  interests.  It  will  give  us  Hunnicut  for  Wash- 
ington, Underwood  for  Jefferson,  and  Brownlow 
for  Jackson.  Every  element  of  this  power  would 
be  infei'ior  in  morality  and  intelligence  to  the  one 
which  has  been  overthrown ;  and  its  influence 
upon  our  welfare  would  be  immensely  greater. 

Will  the  people  of  our  great  Northern  States 
accept  a  domination  of  such  a  "  negro  power," 
erected  on  the  ruins  of  such  a  "  slave  power  "  ? 

CONCLUSION. 

I  do  not  ask  what  will  be  the  consequences  on 
the  white  race  of  ten  States;  whether  the  white 
race  -will  be  expelled ;  I  do  not  ask  what  will  be 
the  effects  upon  our  industrial  or  commercial  in- 
terests, or  on  the  civilization  of  a  portion  of  our 
country  three  and  half  times  as  large  as  the 
French  empire. 

If  the  authors  of  this  policy  teU  you  that  the 
white  people  of  the  South  deserve  this  infliction, 
I  ask  you  whether  you  also  deserve  it  ?  If,  taldng 
counsel  of  hatred,  j'ou  think  you  are  making  a 
government  for  j'our  late  enemies,  I  remind  yoii 
you  are  also  making  a  government  for  yourselves. 
Do  the  twenty-five  millions  of  white  people  out 
of  the  ten  States  deserve  such  a  government  as 
you  are  unposing  on  them  '? 

The  masses  of  the  Republicans  do  not  under- 
stand the  real  nature  of  the  sj'stem  they  are  con- 
tributing to  estabhsh.  They  are  misled  by  party 
association  and  party  antagonism,  by  the  animos- 
ities created  by  the  war,  and  the  unsettled  ideas 
which  grow  out  of  the  novelty  of  the  situation. 
The  leaders  are  full  of  party  passion  and  party 
ambition,  and  will  not  easily  surrender  the  power 
of  a  centralized  government,  or  the  patronage 
and  profits  which  are  incident  to  an  official  ex- 
penditure of  five  hundred  millions  a  year.  The 
grim  Puritan  of  New  England,  whose  only  child,^ 
whose  solitary  daughter,  is  already  listening  to 
the  soft  music  of  a  Celtic  wooer, — stretches  his 
hand  down  along  the  Atlantic  coast  to  the  re- 
ceding and  decaying  African,  and  says :  "  Come, 
Id  us  rnle  this  conlbi^it  to(;elher !"  The  twelve 
Senators  from  New  England — with  twenty  from 
the  ten  States,  would  require  only  a  few  from 
Missouri,  Tennessee,  West  Virginia,  and  from 
new  States, — to  make  a  majority. 

I  do  not  forbid  the  banns.  I  simply  point  to 
the  region  which  stretches  from  the  Hudson  to 
the  Missouri.  It  is  there  that  the  Democracy 
must  display  their  standards,  in  another,  and,  I^ 
tru^  iiii<u  i*attle  for  oonstitutional  government 


10 


and  civil  liberty.     I  invited  j'on  to  tliat  theatre 
last  year.     I  come  now  to  bid  you,  God  speed  1 

Every  business,  every  industrial  interest  is  par- 
alyzed under  excessive  taxation — false  systems  of 
finance — extravagant  cost  of  production — dimiu- 
islied  ability  to  consume.  You  cannot  obtain 
relief  until  jon  cliange  your  governmental  polic}'. 
You  cannot  change   that,  until  you  change  the 


men  who  administer  your  government.  The 
causes  of  the  dangers  in  respect  to  our  political 
institutions  and  civil  liberty,  and  the  causes  of 
A'our  suffering  ia  business,  are  identical.  For 
the  safety  of  tlie  one,  and  for  the  relief  of  the 
other,  you  must  demand  of  the  people  a  cqangk 

OF    ADMINISTRATION    AS    NOW    CAHUIED    ON    BY    CON- 


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